I looked into the requirements when hiring abroad, and the IRS makes it insanely confusing (surprise, surprise). I finally determined that I had no U.S. payroll

I looked into the requirements when hiring abroad, and the IRS makes it insanely confusing (surprise, surprise). I finally determined that I had no U.S. payroll/withholding responsibility as my foreign employee was outside the U.S. and did all their work out of the U.S. For payment, I use xoom.com to transfer bank-to-bank. Its worked out well for international payments so far and their fees are reasonable.