Hi all, I saw a question in a thread and I figured I'd answer publicly and invite others to give their answers. Bear in mind I am not a tax expert and this is not legal advice! 😄 The question: Why is this job US remote? I can work for less from elsewhere. Implication being, it's better for everyone if the job is globally remote. Answer: US taxes require the employee to have a US legal address. If they have a foreign address, the US company can become liable for taxes in the employee's country. The employer could move the employee to the US, but that's involved. Often companies will pay the employee through a local third party agency that handles payroll. Legally, that middle company is the "employer". Middle companies typically rip off the US employer, and neither the contractor or the employer get a ton of benefit out of it. Depending on your country's laws, you might also be able to set up a business as a contractor yourself and this is an easier way to handle the tax issues. If your country has favourable tax laws, you never know, the employer may choose to set up a legal entity in your country and pay you through that. I live in Switzerland, with super favourable tax laws, and no one has ever seemed interested. So... YMMV. Again, not tax or legal advice! Just my experience.

I know remote.com, costs 1800 $/year/employee that's not a huge cost, I do not know for other EoR (I'm hired through GoGlobal but I do not know the cost for the company)

Oh man, that's a bummer. I'm sorry to hear that! And thank you for the link. Here's Switzerland on the remote.com cost of living index. 😭 This is my struggle with contract work, offers can't come up to cost of living. Got charged $12 for a bag of ice the other week. I'm not even kidding. 🧊

I know, you are way more in trouble than me 😞

Would honestly love to move to Italy. Why is it so hard to hire from Italy?

Companies spends more or less 40% taxes over the employee gross salary

I'm pretty sure James Bond comes after you if you do that. Too much high quality livin'. Making money and commuting between Zürich and Como? You're asking for it.

AFAIK from zurich few companies allow remote working, am I right?

Yeah. Swiss working culture is rather conservative and fully remote businesses are unusual. They mostly exist in the blockchain space.

and depending on regulation, there might be a requirement for all to be stored, used, etc... in that country.

Just throwing in some thoughts on this. As you have said, if a company has a legal entity in a country, they can employ in that country so long as the individual has a right to work there. What we tend to see is that a lot of companies will have a fully remote policy and as you pointed out, will use an EOR to ensure that they hire that individual in the country in which they live. However, as with the legal entity point above, that individual needs to have a right to work in that country. For example, if you live in Germany you need a right to be employed there on a German contract of employment. There are a few countries that offer a digital nomad visa. There are lots of EOR companies out there, www.remote.com being one of them but others too such as Multiplier. Costs vary. There are companies who choose to go a different route and hire individuals on a contract basis if in a country in which they don't have a legal entity, but this doesn't give the employer or employee as much legal protection as if hired on a contract through an EOR. Hope that helps!

Wow, this is great, @Louise Ogilvy! Thank you. 🙂 Out of curiosity, which countries do offer digital nomad visas? Do you know of a good list anywhere?

Hey Christina! I know that Malta has a digital nomad visa - https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/digital-nomad-visa/malta/ and it's a beautiful country! So you can live there and work for any company outside of Malta. There are a few more, let me just check 🙂