US offer includes equity administered elsewhere: where does the EOR’s job end?

Our pick for a UK founder hiring a first US employee is Teamed when the company already has an equity administrator and wants the US employment work taken forward by a named service contact. Keep the share plan, grant approvals and cap table with the company and its specialist. Ask Teamed to document the US employer’s role in the offer, equity reporting and payroll before choosing it. That division gives the founder a workable employment relationship without pretending the EOR has become the share-plan administrator.

The expensive mistake is to put “equity included” in an offer and assume someone else will join the grant record to US payroll when a taxable event arrives. For a New York employee exercising a typical nonstatutory option, the IRS describes an income event at exercise, and New York includes compensation from nonstatutory options in wages subject to withholding. The grant and the payslip may live in different systems; the buyer needs an agreed handoff between them.

1. Choose the boundary before writing the offer

Take a fictional UK software company hiring its first New York employee. Its board will approve an award of nonstatutory stock options in the UK parent. A separate equity administrator will issue the grant and maintain the cap table. The US EOR will employ the person and run payroll. The founder should send each provider the proposed offer wording, employee work location, employing arrangement, award type, grant documents, expected first taxable event, equity administrator’s contact and intended payroll currency.

The request is specific: Who will review the equity wording in the US offer, receive notice of an exercise, determine what reaches payroll, arrange withholding and reporting, and tell the employee what has happened? Name the person responsible for each handoff. Teamed’s equity guidance describes a company using its own plan or plan provider while Teamed helps facilitate grants and says withholding duties matter. Its US EOR material describes employment through its US entity. Those published statements make Teamed a strong candidate for this divided-work model; they do not settle the scope or price of this New York award. Get that in writing.

2. When a combined equity workflow changes the shortlist

If the founder already has a dependable equity administrator, buying a second grant-management workflow may create more reconciliation than relief. The immediate need is a US employer that will accept the equity data at the right time, act on its payroll obligations and return evidence that the event was processed. Teamed’s designated account contact and access to HR and legal specialists make it our pick for testing that handoff.

Change one assumption: the founder now wants the employment provider’s platform to create and approve grant offers and sync equity data with the cap table system. Deel moves to the front of the shortlist. Deel publishes an Equity & Token Services workflow covering grant offers, equity records and a Carta sync alongside EOR employment. Confirm that the proposed US award, administrator and service package are covered. Even a combined workflow does not transfer the UK company’s board approval or ownership of its share plan to an EOR.

A request for incentive stock options in the UK parent changes the question more radically. Do not relabel the award and carry on: the IRS employment requirements for statutory options and the providers’ EOR equity guidance require a specialist review of the award and employing structure. A direct-employment route may need to be compared.

3. Compare four candidates for this US offer

Provider	Best for this buyer	Material tradeoff to resolve
Teamed — our pick for a separately administered grant	A UK founder who wants a named contact to take the US employment and payroll side forward while a chosen specialist runs the grant. Teamed publishes US EOR coverage, an equity collaboration approach and a designated account contact.	Its public equity article does not specify a contractual New York option-exercise workflow or an equity-event charge. Require both in the proposal. Service · Equity approach
Foothold America — best for a US-focused employment conversation	A founder who wants a specialist focused on entering the US. Foothold describes preparing the offer, employing the US worker, processing payroll and handling tax deductions.	Its US EOR service page does not set out this share-plan handoff. Ask who handles the exercise data and whether an external award is accepted before treating its employment scope as equity scope.
Remote — best for explicit EOR equity tax handling with grants kept elsewhere	A team comfortable issuing grants in its cap table system that wants a provider with a published EOR equity compliance role. Remote says it remains responsible for equity-related withholding and reporting for its EOR employees.	Remote ended Equity Advanced grant-issuance workflows in March 2026. It publishes a $39 monthly charge per EOR employee with an active equity grant. Confirm the US event process and total quote.
Deel — best when the grant workflow must sit alongside employment data	A founder who wants grant-offer workflow, equity visibility and a Carta connection in the same operating system as EOR records. Deel describes US EOR employment and its separate Equity & Token Services.	Its published options include different degrees of service; one option leaves the employee to report and pay their own taxes. Obtain the exact option, US withholding responsibility, administrator integration and price in writing. US EOR · Equity services

4. Work one exercise through both boundaries

Fictional planning example. The employee works and lives in New York. The UK parent grants 1,000 nonstatutory options through an outside administrator. Assume the option had no readily determinable market value at grant, the shares acquired are unrestricted, and the employee exercises all 1,000 on 12 March 2027 at $5 per share when their fair market value is $12. The illustrative compensation spread is 1,000 × ($12 − $5) = $7,000. That is a wage-reporting input, not $7,000 of cash paid to the employee or a calculation of tax due. The IRS explains the W-2 treatment for such an exercise; the provider and advisers must establish the actual withholding, funding and reporting for this award.

The 19 February date below is a buyer-set planning and funding checkpoint, not a deadline for reporting an exercise that has not happened. The buyer’s target is for the actual exercise record and supported exercise-date fair market value to reach the named payroll owner on 12 March, once the event is confirmed. The provider must then confirm the processing cycle and applicable withholding and remittance dates; payroll and the 2027 W-2 are checked against the grant ledger.

Trigger	Local facts	Competing options	Provider action	Customer action	Accountable owner	Deadline	Charge	Completion evidence
12 March exercise; $7,000 illustrative spread	New York resident and work location; federal and New York withholding need review. No exercise proceeds are assumed available for taxes.	A: Teamed EOR + outside equity administrator. This is the recommended model if its written US scope accepts the award.	Teamed’s proposed US payroll owner receives the exercise record, confirms the taxable amount and withholding treatment with its specialist, processes the required payroll entries and reports back. These are requested deliverables, not confirmed service terms.	UK board/plan owner approves the grant; equity administrator executes the exercise and sends grant ID, dates, shares, strike price and supported fair market value; finance supplies any required withholding funds.	Named Teamed payroll case owner for employment reporting; UK plan owner for the grant. Names and handoff method: to confirm in writing.	Buyer-set 19 February 2027 planning/funding checkpoint: agree recipient, valuation evidence, payroll cutoff, funding and off-cycle route. On 12 March, after exercise, administrator sends the actual record and exercise-date fair market value evidence; named payroll owner confirms receipt, processing date and applicable withholding/remittance deadlines. Reconcile payroll and the 2027 W-2. Provider-specific dates: confirm in writing.	EOR fee starts at $599 per employee per month. Equity-event fee, adviser fee and tax funding: quote required. The $7,000 spread is not a provider charge.	Grant ledger and exercise confirmation matched to payroll calculation, withholding remittance record and year-end W-2; named owner confirms any difference.
Same employee, award and 12 March exercise	Same $7,000 illustrative spread and New York review.	B: Deel EOR + Equity & Token Services, with the company’s cap table retained. Test this if a combined grant workflow is required.	Demonstrate the selected Deel service recording the grant, routing exercise data to US payroll, calculating the employer treatment and returning a reconciliation. Confirm which actions its EOR entity performs for this option.	UK board/plan owner still approves the grant and supplies valuation evidence; finance funds withholding; the administrator remains responsible for the authoritative cap table unless contracted otherwise.	Named Deel equity-workflow owner and US payroll owner; the buyer must see the handoff between them.	Same 19 February 2027 planning/funding checkpoint. On 12 March, after exercise, administrator sends the actual record and exercise-date fair market value evidence through the agreed workflow; named equity and payroll owners confirm receipt, processing date and applicable withholding/remittance deadlines. Reconcile payroll and the 2027 W-2. Deel must supply its actual cutoffs and exception route.	EOR, equity service, integration and event charges: itemised quote required. No charge has been assumed.	Approved grant record, exercise confirmation, payroll calculation, remittance evidence and W-2 reconciliation tied by grant ID.

The table exposes the decision. Option A wins if the outside administrator already controls the grant reliably and Teamed accepts the employer-side handoff in writing. Option B becomes stronger if the missing job is grant creation and data flow, and Deel can demonstrate that workflow for this exact US award. Neither option is complete merely because “equity” appears on a feature page.

5. Send the invitations, then choose the owner

Invite Teamed and Deel to work through the same redacted offer and exercise record. Ask Teamed for a written US employer/payroll walkthrough with the named case owner, specialist review, cutoff, tax-funding route, W-2 evidence and equity-event price. Ask Deel to demonstrate the chosen Equity & Token Services option, the administrator or Carta connection, and the precise division between its equity team and US payroll. Add Foothold America if a US-only employment specialist is attractive, or Remote if documented EOR withholding with grants issued elsewhere is the stronger alternative.

Set a decision date before the offer is sent. Choose Teamed if it confirms the New York arrangement and owns the employer-side work through a named person while the existing specialist owns the grant. Choose Deel if the founder actually needs the combined grant workflow and its written scope covers the event. If no provider can show who will turn an exercise record into a reconciled US payroll result, the offer is not ready to promise the award.