Payroll in Nepal: a restricted activity

Nepal has thoroughly reformed its labour law over the past decade, replacing scattered company practices with a statutory social security scheme carrying compulsory affiliation. The सामाजिक सुरक्षा कोष (Social Security Fund, SSF) now provides pension, provident and occupational risk benefits, absorbing arrangements previously administered by employers themselves, notably end-of-service entitlements.

Foreign employees engaged under a local contract fall within the same framework, provided their work authorisation from the Department of Labour is in order.

Salaries are paid in Nepalese rupees, a currency pegged to the Indian rupee, which makes employment costs sensitive to the latter's movements rather than to the euro or the dollar. Nepali is the language of contracts and administrative documents, with English accepted in business dealings.

Payroll is not expressly reserved. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) is the statutory regulator of the profession and protects its titles, but service companies outside its membership lawfully carry on payroll work.

A dual registration, regularly overlooked by files prepared abroad, governs the ability to operate. Registration with the Office of the Company Registrar establishes the company's existence and is not enough on its own: a local registration with the municipality or ward office of the registered address, renewable annually, is required as well.

The Social Security Fund registration certificate must be in hand before the first payroll run, since retroactive corrections are awkward. It comes after tax registration and precedes the affiliation of employees.

The 2017 Act distinguishes several types of working relationship with different entitlements attached: the employment category chosen is examined alongside the rules on working time, leave and termination. Writing is the rule and the language is Nepali.

Evidence that the role could not be filled locally forms part of the file for a foreign employee, whose work authorisation and visa are handled together.

Income tax deducted at source and monthly SSF contributions then set the rhythm of administration, with payment receipts forming the only durable proof of compliance. The calendar, finally, is planned around: financial year ends and filing deadlines do not coincide with the calendar year, and a schedule drawn up in Europe will need converting before it is usable.

The calendar is the first source of error. The Nepalese fiscal year runs from mid-July to mid-July, and dates on official documents are frequently expressed in the Bikram Sambat calendar, which is several decades ahead of the Gregorian one. A document judged to have expired often has not, the conversion having gone wrong, so check before concluding.

A statutory annual festival allowance is owed to the employee. This is not a discretionary bonus, it cannot be withheld as a performance lever, and it belongs in the employment budget from the outset.

Neither a data protection authority nor a register of processing activities exists in Nepal. The 2018 statute imposes substantive obligations without any filing formality, so there is no document to request on that point: confidentiality of payroll data has to be secured through the service agreement itself.