Payroll in Ukraine: provider, EOR or a remote specialist?

Answer this first: who is the employer?

Payroll is an employer's duty: calculating pay, withholding tax, paying contributions and filing reports. So a search for a payroll company in Ukraine only goes somewhere once you know who the employer is. There are three possible answers.

• Your own company or branch in Ukraine. You need a local firm or a local accountant to run payroll for that entity.
• A provider, on your behalf. That is an employer of record, and payroll comes with the service.
• Nobody, because the person is an independent contractor. There is nothing to run: you pay invoices, and the person handles their own taxes. Many remote professionals in Ukraine work with foreign clients this way, registered as private entrepreneurs, known locally as FOP.

A local payroll or accounting firm

Most people searching for payroll services in Ukraine have this in mind: a monthly service for a company registered there. It usually includes:

• Calculating gross and net pay, leave and sick pay.
• Withholding and paying taxes and contributions, and filing the reports.
• HR administration: employment contracts, orders, leave records and personnel files, kept the way local rules require.

It fits if you have, or are about to register, a Ukrainian entity with staff on its books. It does not fit if you have no entity. Employment rules can change quickly in wartime, so ask how the firm tracks changes and who answers for a wrong filing. We do not rank or recommend local providers; your adviser or other foreign companies in your sector are better sources of names.

An employer of record

An EOR signs a local employment contract with the person, runs payroll, pays the contributions and provides the benefits local law requires. You direct the daily work and pay the provider each month: the salary, the employer costs and its own fee. You need no entity of your own.

It fits if the person should be an employee and you do not want a company in Ukraine. Ask every provider for a full written quote on the actual salary, whether it has its own entity in Ukraine or uses a partner, and how it handles wartime situations such as an employee being called up. Our guide to EOR or contractor covers the trade-offs.

A contractor platform

Platforms such as Deel hold the contractor agreement, collect the invoices and pay the person; Deel's contractor plan is $49^[1] a month per contractor. A transfer service such as Wise, from 0.23%^[2] per transfer, or Payoneer only moves the money. None of this is payroll: no tax is withheld, no contributions are paid and no employment is created.

It fits if the person genuinely works as an independent contractor; how the work is done decides that, not what the contract is called. See contractors and employees abroad and ways to pay contractors.

A remote payroll specialist: a person, not a service

A remote payroll specialist prepares payroll runs, checks hours and deductions, keeps pay records and answers staff questions, inside your systems and for your payroll, wherever your staff are. The person may live in Kyiv and work on the payroll of your US or European team.

It helps if you already have a payroll system or provider and someone has to feed it, check it and chase the corrections. It does not:

• make you an employer in Ukraine, or run Ukrainian payroll for you;
• move the filing duty or the liability away from your company and your provider;
• replace your payroll software or provider, which you keep paying for.

Training in Ukraine follows Ukrainian practice, so test the person on your system and your country's pay rules with a short paid task. For a budget, see what a payroll specialist costs, US pay by state and hiring a payroll specialist from Ukraine.

Which one fits

• Ukrainian entity with staff on its books: a local payroll or accounting firm.
• No entity, and the person should be an employee: an employer of record.
• One or two genuine independent contractors: a contractor platform or a transfer service.
• Payroll already runs elsewhere, and you need hands to run it: a remote payroll specialist.
• Not sure who the employer is: a local adviser, before any of the above.

What we do, and when we are not the right choice

Stafka is a job board and Silkstaff is the recruitment company behind it. We do not calculate pay, file reports, act as an employer or hold money for you. If you need any of that, we are the wrong choice.

What we do is help you find the person. You can browse anonymous profiles. Posting a job is free; pricing shows when a fee applies. Our open vacancies today are for assistants and customer support, so for this role send the tasks, hours and budget through Get 3 matching profiles and we reply within one business day with a yes or a no.

Most candidates apply through our Telegram bot with a written and a voice English task, each profile shows the English level (B1–C2), and Silkstaff checks English on a live call before any client interview. The fee is a one-time $2,500–3,000^[3] on the start day; you then contract with the person and pay them directly. If the person leaves or does not work out within 180^[3] days of the start date, Silkstaff replaces them free of charge: one replacement per placement, once the fee has been paid and as long as the role, hours and pay stay as agreed. The fee itself is not refunded.