MassPay Insights

Navigating Compliance in Global Payments

Written by Chris Rechtsteiner | May 17, 2024 3:30:00 PM

Did you know that compliance fines have reached over 1 billion dollars for U.S companies? 

Compliance is critical for any organization involved in cross-border payouts to ensure they stay on top of global tax regulations.

With the global gig economy on the rise and an increase in contractors working across borders, it's particularly challenging to stay compliant when you’re subject to multiple (often countless) local, state, and country-level regulations.

The good news? You don’t have to address it alone. When compliance is built-in to payout solutions, businesses avoid risks, build trust with stakeholders, and ensure smooth transactions across borders.

 

What Failure to Comply Means for Your Business 

There are very real consequences for businesses when they fail to consider compliance regulations. That’s why 91% of companies plan to implement continuous compliance in the next five years. 

 

What happens when businesses fail to meet compliance requirements:

  1. Non-compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations can lead to severe legal and regulatory penalties, including hefty fines, reputation damage, and criminal charges.
  2. Negative public perception and media scrutiny can damage an organization's reputation, losing customer trust, business partners, and investors.
  3. Organizations that do not comply may miss out on domestic and international business opportunities, suffer limited access to financial services and reduced business relationships, and be excluded from growth opportunities.
  4. Non-compliance with AML regulations often results in increased operational costs to rectify the situation, including the need to hire additional staff, invest in compliance systems, and conduct internal investigations.
  5. Non-compliance weakens an organization's risk management framework, leaving companies vulnerable to money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes. 
  6. Failure to allocate resources for compliance can not only lead to financial losses but also hinder a company's ability to compete effectively in the market.

How Integrated Compliance Builds Trust and Credibility  

According to a survey from The Tax Foundation, 34% of gig workers need to be made aware of their obligation to pay quarterly taxes to the IRS. This is why a solution providing a one-stop solution to all tax compliance needs with only one partner and one API is necessary. 

Thus, companies need a comprehensive global tax compliance solution at their fingertips.

Customers are more likely to trust businesses that proactively comply with relevant regulations rather than cut corners. Partners and investors also want to work with credible companies that value compliance.  

A company's history of compliance demonstrates its commitment to following rules, not attempting to evade them. 

 

Supporting Compliant Global Payout Transactions  

Compliance is essential for smooth and efficient cross-border transactions. Robust compliance procedures streamline the payment process and prevent bottlenecks or delays. 

So, what are some ways to ensure compliance when dealing with global payouts?

Tax Compliance

  • Comprehensive tax reporting procedures make it easier to handle cross-border tax obligations. Tax compliance should be an ongoing process rather than scrambling during tax season. 

 

  • Proper collection of tax IDs and forms when onboarding contractors or gig workers means their payments have the necessary documentation. Come tax time, everything is readily available for proper reporting.

 

KYC and AML

  • Know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes during onboarding ensure compliance from the start. These simple but critical processes help expedite onboarding and facilitate faster global payouts.

 

  • Robust Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes are essential to adhering to compliance regulations and preventing financial crimes. 

 

  • Proper KYC to verify the identity of customers and assess the potential risks associated with them. This includes collecting identifying information, checking government-issued IDs, screening against sanctions lists, and monitoring transactions.

 

  • Good AML processes that identify and report suspicious activities to indicate money laundering, terrorism financing, or other financial crimes. Transaction monitoring, risk modeling, and investigation procedures help mitigate fraud. 

 

These measures mitigate compliance risks and demonstrate a commitment to adhering to regulations. They prevent illegitimate funds from entering the financial system while allowing legitimate transactions to take place.

 

Easy Identity Verification with MassPay

Identity Verification offered by MassPay helps businesses to reduce the risks associated with fraudulent transactions, chargebacks, and compliance issues. It also facilitates the prevention of identity theft and supports expansion into new markets. 

 

Here are the benefits of partnering with MassPay for identity verification.:

 

  • Comprehensive Verification Methods: Access the widest range of verification methods including document scanning, facial recognition, and biometric analysis delivers a secure and user-friendly experience.
  • Global Coverage: Verify your customers' identities no matter where they are, with support for over 230 countries, 11,000 government-issued IDs, and over 45 languages and dialects.
  • Fraud Prevention: Leverage advanced machine learning algorithms and expert human analysis to minimize the increasingly complex risk of identity fraud.
  • Data Privacy and Compliance: Rest assured knowing your solution is fully GDPR compliant and adheres to strict data security standards.
  • Seamless Integration: An IVS service integrates seamlessly with your business to deliver a seamless and consistent experience for your customers.
  • 24x7x365 Support: A support team that’s always standing by to help you whenever and wherever you need it.

 

With cross-border payouts on the rise, especially for gig workers and contractors, having robust KYC and AML is essential to modern payout operations.

 

Efficient Sanctions Screening

Sanctions screening involves cross-checking transactions and entities against global watchlists to ensure that you are not doing business with individuals, organizations, or countries that are under sanctions. 

Engaging with sanctioned parties can result in significant penalties, reputational damage, and business disruption. Fines for sanctions violations can reach millions of dollars.

Ongoing screening is necessary to prevent violations before they occur. MassPay’s integrated compliance solutions use advanced matching algorithms to screen transactions and customers in real time. We screen against comprehensive sanctions lists from global authorities such as OFAC, UN, EU, and UK.

This comprehensive screening protects our customers from inadvertent violations. Our intelligent systems are continuously learning and being updated to meet changing sanctions requirements.

 

Adhering to Global Tax Compliance Needs

Contractor and gig worker taxes are becoming increasingly complex and overseen worldwide. As regulations continue to evolve in each state and country, these changes are impacting the globe rapidly and significantly. 

 

When paying international contractors and gig workers, companies must comply with complex reporting requirements and tax regulations across multiple jurisdictions. 

 

MassPay’s payout orchestration platform has tax reporting and compliance built right in. Automatically handle tax form collection, validation, and filing based on payment recipient location. Tax withholding, remittance, and reporting are handled seamlessly as part of the payout process, eliminating the need for manual oversight. 

 

Grow your business without worrying about taxes. 

 

MassPay: One API for All Payment Operations

Integrated tax compliance with MassPay is like having everything you need to follow tax rules around the world - all in one place. 

It helps businesses handle difficult taxes easily. Keep up with new tax laws, figure out how much tax to pay correctly, and do all the time-consuming paperwork without any hassle with the single REST API.

  • 360-degree payout integration helps navigate the complex and changing landscape of compliance regulations. 

 

  • Integrated compliance solutions provide a streamlined, comprehensive approach to navigating this complex regulatory environment, including  KYC, KYB, AML, sanctions screening, and tax reporting measures. 

 

  • Our payout orchestration platform specifically addresses the needs of paying international contractors and gig workers by incorporating integrated tax compliance features. 

To learn more about streamlining your payout compliance, request a demo of our integrated compliance and payout solutions today. Discover how our platform can mitigate your compliance risks while enabling fast, simple cross-border contractor and gig worker payouts.