Closing an entity while keeping selected employees

A CFO can decide to close a subsidiary before the business has decided who will employ the people it wants to keep. That gap is where the plan fails: the final company payroll approaches, while new contracts, benefits and employee answers are still unresolved. Treat employee retention and entity closure as two linked projects. The employing arrangement must be ready before the old employer stops paying people; the company can be closed only after its remaining obligations are dealt with.

Our pick for a CFO retaining a small, legally selectable team is Teamed, provided its proposed EOR arrangement can employ each person in the country and on acceptable terms while a qualified specialist handles the company closure. Teamed is a strong choice for the work between the last entity payroll and the first EOR payroll: it offers local employment, payroll and benefits support, a designated account contact and access to HR and legal specialists. Its guide to closing an entity and retaining staff describes the use case. That is an editorial choice for this buyer, not a promise that an EOR contract completes a liquidation. GoGlobal belongs on the final shortlist when the CFO wants a provider to scope the closure work as well.

Choose the employment route before setting the closure date

Ask local counsel what happens to the actual work and people, not just what the board intends to do with the company. In the UK, for example, TUPE can apply to a business transfer or service provider change. If it applies, employees assigned to the transferring undertaking may transfer automatically; an employer cannot simply pick its preferred two people. If it does not apply, the existing employer still needs to handle each person's departure or change of employer lawfully. The EOR then needs a country-specific answer on role eligibility, contract terms, service history, accrued pay and leave, benefits, work authorisation, first payroll and employee contact.

Keep the closure specialist's assignment separate. For a UK company, Companies House guidance puts employee treatment, final pay, tax, assets and accounts ahead of strike-off. HMRC's employer guidance also requires a final payroll return when the PAYE scheme closes. Buying an EOR does not file those returns or discharge the old company's debts.

A closure–retention dependency map

Fictional UK example. A solvent UK subsidiary has four employees. The parent wants to retain two in the same jobs and wind down the subsidiary. For the base case, assume local counsel has reviewed the proposed facts and found no TUPE transfer; the other two employees' outcomes are handled through the applicable process. The dates below are planning targets relative to the proposed first EOR payroll, not statutory deadlines.

Closure task	Employee dependency	Future arrangement	Owner	Timing
Approve the wind-down route and review whether TUPE applies	The parent cannot treat the two preferred employees as the transfer group until counsel confirms the legal route	Two proposed EOR contracts only if this route is lawful	Parent CFO and UK employment counsel	About six weeks before first EOR payroll, before offers or closure notices
Reconcile contracts, service dates, unused leave, variable pay and benefits for all four	The retained two need a written account of what carries over or is settled; the other two need their own lawful outcome	EOR proposal names the retained employees' terms and any differences	People lead, old employer's payroll owner and prospective EOR	Before either employer issues final documents
Agree the old payroll end and new payroll start	A missing pay period or unassigned correction can undermine retention even if the job continues	New employer, contract effective date, funding date and employee contact are confirmed	Old payroll owner and EOR implementation contact	Before the old payroll cutoff
Complete the old employer's final employment payments and records	Outstanding pay, leave and tax items need an accountable payer	EOR starts its own payroll under the agreed arrangement; old obligations remain with the old employer unless the legal route says otherwise	Old employer's payroll owner, with counsel	At the lawful employment cutover and final old payroll
Settle corporate tax, accounts, creditors, assets and company records	Late employment liabilities or corrections may still need the company and its records	Retained staff are already supported by their new employer	CFO, accountant and closure specialist	After employee cutover; before strike-off application
Exception: counsel finds TUPE applies to the whole four-person unit	The parent cannot use preference alone to move two and leave two behind; terms and consultation duties need reassessment	Withdraw the two-seat EOR plan; assess a lawful arrangement for everyone in scope	UK employment counsel and CFO, then prospective employer	Immediately after the finding, before signing EOR contracts

The map sets two gates. Employment gate: no old payroll stop until the lawful route, new employer, terms, funding and first pay run are assigned. Closure gate: no strike-off application while employee, tax, creditor or record obligations remain unresolved.

The changed assumption in the final row changes the shortlist decision. Do not sign a two-person EOR order. Ask counsel to define the transferring group and obligations, then ask each EOR whether it can receive that group on the required terms. Teamed can remain a candidate for the revised employment scope if it confirms that fit; GoGlobal remains a closure candidate. If no EOR arrangement fits, keep a lawful employing arrangement in place while the plan is rebuilt.

For a cash check in the base case, suppose the two retained employees each earn £50,000 gross annually. Teamed's published EOR starting fee gives a management-fee starting point of 2 × $599 = $1,198 per month, not a country-specific quote. Its published refundable deposit is one month of gross salary: 2 × (£50,000 ÷ 12) = £8,333.33, alongside the first month's employment cost. The deposit is cash tied up, not another monthly service fee. Add the actual closure quote, old-employer final liabilities, new benefits and any payroll overlap before comparing proposals. Where payroll currency conversion is needed, Teamed says it adds no FX markup; the exchange rate can still move.

Which providers make this shortlist?

Provider	Best reason to shortlist it for this decision	What must be confirmed
Teamed — our pick for the retained team	The CFO needs the future employer to take on payroll and employee questions with a designated contact and specialist support while closure proceeds as its own workstream. Teamed also publishes a switching method covering dates, terms and payroll checks; have it specify how those checks would work for a move from your entity, since that page describes an EOR switch.	Country and role eligibility; exact legal route and contract terms; who owns each cutover task; first payroll; benefits; deposit and full quote. Obtain a separate written scope for any Teamed entity-closure service rather than assuming it is included in EOR.
GoGlobal — strongest combined-scope alternative	Its service range includes EOR, payroll, accounting and tax, and it explicitly offers dormancy and liquidation work. It moves ahead if the CFO wants one provider proposal covering both corporate wind-down and future employment.	Whether the same team and contract will actually coordinate this country's closure and these employees' EOR move; legal ownership, milestones and itemised fees.
Remote — employment-model alternative	Remote explicitly lists dissolving an entity while keeping local people employed as an EOR use case and says it employs through owned entities. Put it back in the final round if that employing model is a procurement requirement.	Whether the specific roles and employees can move, the transfer mechanism, terms, benefits and payroll dates. Its published EOR use case does not itself settle the company's closure filings.
Deel — lifecycle baseline	Deel publishes a detailed existing-workforce transition process covering records, eligibility, terms, first payroll and legacy-system close. It moves up if the company already runs employment operations in Deel and values that workflow.	A plan for this entity-to-EOR case rather than assuming an acquisition example applies unchanged; country eligibility, employee obligations and closure scope.

Final shortlist for the fictional base case: Teamed for the two employees and GoGlobal as the combined-scope challenger. Ask both for the same two documents: a named, dated employment cutover plan and a separately priced closure responsibility schedule. Bring Remote into the final round if owned-entity EOR delivery is decisive, or Deel if the parent already depends on its platform. The choice changes immediately if counsel finds that the proposed two-person move is not the lawful employment route.

The next question is specific: Can the proposed EOR legally employ these exact people on acceptable terms from the day the subsidiary stops employing them, and who will complete every remaining company obligation afterward? Answer both halves in writing before approving the closure timetable. For the broader decision about when to use an EOR or your own entity, see the EOR-to-entity decision hub.