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How to Pay Remote Employees
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#22I was really hoping this would go into some of the tax implications as well. I was semi-recently denied a fully remote job because my state of residence would have caused the company to have a "sufficient physical presence" in the state, and meant that they would have to do a lot of extra work as well as paying extra sales taxes for sales in that state as well as setup the infrastructure to send the required taxes to…
That really sucks. It is a reality I see some of my clients facing too. I've wondered what would happen if you offered to work as a self-employed 1099 employee, or if you opened your own LLC. Does that employer offer health insurance? That's pretty much the only reason why someone would demand being a W2 employee in my mind. And there's lots of ways to get health insurance in this country.
The first few years the health insurance exchanges were open, getting insurance on your own was a breeze. I purchased insurance for my family for a few years that way, paying perfectly reasonable premiums for the benefits offered.
In my state, Kentucky, there is now only one insurer per county offering plans and they're HMO garbage accepted almost nowhere. Additionally, large insurers like Humana (that are based here!) aren't really offering private insurance plans.
Kentucky is just about W2 or bust for health coverage :(
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#23I worked for a 100% remote company for years. Although I wasn't involved in the payroll details, my impression was that the problems were just bureaucracy, and not as painful as this article implies. The answer to make it work was, "Hire a payroll processor."
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#24I would love to know how companies can grant equity (vesting over time) to remote contractors (i.e., without establishing a legal entity in the remote country.)
Signing an option contract with a vesting clause. Nothing about options or vesting is inherently tied to employment.
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#25Meantime transferwise.com from article is down for more than 6 hours already, be careful...
Unfortunate, I have been using for the last 3 years and I couldn't recommend it enough.
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#26I would love to know how companies can grant equity (vesting over time) to remote contractors (i.e., without establishing a legal entity in the remote country.)
Signing an option contract with a vesting clause. Nothing about options or vesting is inherently tied to employment.
Hazards abound if you're a US startup and have employees in other countries that might treat ISOs significantly differently than the IRS.
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Signing an option contract with a vesting clause. Nothing about options or vesting is inherently tied to employment.
Hazards abound if you're a US startup and have employees in other countries that might treat ISOs significantly differently than the IRS.
I don’t think you can grant ISOs to non-employees. That doesn’t stop you from granting simple options. (It will probably be a tax headache, however. Derivatives usually are.)
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#28I was really hoping this would go into some of the tax implications as well. I was semi-recently denied a fully remote job because my state of residence would have caused the company to have a "sufficient physical presence" in the state, and meant that they would have to do a lot of extra work as well as paying extra sales taxes for sales in that state as well as setup the infrastructure to send the required taxes to…
Today's US Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v Wayfair eliminates the "physical presence" test for sales tax jurisdiction. [1] Thus your prospective employer's reasoning (at least as far as substantial presence for sales tax purposes) turns out to have been moot.
However, depending on the employer's business form, etc, there could be other implications to remote employee location beyond just complying with state payroll tax and labor law obligations. For example, when I was in a partnership, my out-of-state partners still had to pay state income tax on income "sourced" in my state even though they lived in a zero-income-tax jurisdiction.
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-taxes/u-s-top-c...
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#29I would love to know how companies can grant equity (vesting over time) to remote contractors (i.e., without establishing a legal entity in the remote country.)
It depends based on the country. Some countries require an addendum to your stock plan, or other changes. So you would really need to talk to a compensation and benefits attorney to be safe.
Re: How to Pay Remote Employees
#30I was really hoping this would go into some of the tax implications as well. I was semi-recently denied a fully remote job because my state of residence would have caused the company to have a "sufficient physical presence" in the state, and meant that they would have to do a lot of extra work as well as paying extra sales taxes for sales in that state as well as setup the infrastructure to send the required taxes to…
On the plus side, the Supreme Court apparently threw that argument out the window today. [1]