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Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

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41–50 of 87 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#41
post #27

Is this a US only question? Are you mixing up employees/contractors with onsite local? Employees don't invoice you; contractors do. UK employer here. For payment, I can't think of any way of paying any employees other than via direct bank transfer. I haven't used a cheque (check in the US) for years , and certainly never for paying employees in the last 20 years. Regular international contractors are paid via Transfe…

I love the ease of Transferwise but I've run tests and a bank wire is cheaper (we get free wire fees with our business banking service so I'm not including what might be an extra $30 from your bank).

A friend recently needed to move EUR sitting in one of her HSBC accounts to GBP in another of her HSBC accounts. To get HSBC to do it would have taken "up to three days", and the exchange rate was abysmal. On my recommendation, she used TransferWise instead, saved almost £300 on the exchange rate and it moved within an hour. YMMV, but in UK I've literally never seen big banks be cheaper than TW.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#43
post #40
post #16

Please don't send checks.. I can't think of a more annoying way to get paid! Regardless of the accounting particulars which have been discussed here, there's bound to be a much better way of actually paying folks.

This seems like a silly thing to be annoyed about. Checks don’t have fees like most other types of electronic payment, and money is money. Why would you be OK with giving up a certain percentage of your hard-earned money just because you have to go through the “hassle” of dealing with a piece of paper? Many banks even accept the check deposit via app now - you don’t even need to go to the ATM. Edit: I’m talking about…

Because some remote employees move all the time and it's annoying to arrange where to receive the check.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#44
post #29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does your accounting work? Is your accountant also up to date with the 2019 program? Are there any caveats to this that you didn't mention? Are they all contract 1099? What about healthcare and retirement contributions and considerations?

I never understand why people bring up accountants or taxes when talking about cryptocurrencies. Seriously, you negotiate with your employer an hourly rate, you get paid that hourly rate and is what you should report. The way you receive your salary at the end of the day (bank transfer or crypto) is completely decoupled from this. In the same way you don't need to tell the taxman what bank did you use to receive your…

How is converting it to fiat a different subject when most people need to be paid in something that can then be used for rent/food/literally everything else?

This entire thread is insane.

The second a job tries to pay me in crypto is the second I'm looking for another job.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#45
post #40
post #16

Please don't send checks.. I can't think of a more annoying way to get paid! Regardless of the accounting particulars which have been discussed here, there's bound to be a much better way of actually paying folks.

This seems like a silly thing to be annoyed about. Checks don’t have fees like most other types of electronic payment, and money is money. Why would you be OK with giving up a certain percentage of your hard-earned money just because you have to go through the “hassle” of dealing with a piece of paper? Many banks even accept the check deposit via app now - you don’t even need to go to the ATM. Edit: I’m talking about…

> Why would you be OK with giving up a certain percentage of your hard-earned money

The direct deposit fee is, at most, a couple of dollars per paycheck, and the employer should be paying that.

It's 2019. Paying employees by printed check is as silly as sending day-to-day inter-office communications by fax.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the ease of Transferwise but I've run tests and a bank wire is cheaper (we get free wire fees with our business banking service so I'm not including what might be an extra $30 from your bank).

A friend recently needed to move EUR sitting in one of her HSBC accounts to GBP in another of her HSBC accounts. To get HSBC to do it would have taken "up to three days", and the exchange rate was abysmal. On my recommendation, she used TransferWise instead, saved almost £300 on the exchange rate and it moved within an hour. YMMV, but in UK I've literally never seen big banks be cheaper than TW.

Had a friend with a similar problem, simply moved the funds via Revolut which gives you a bank account of the local currency at either side.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#47
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend recently needed to move EUR sitting in one of her HSBC accounts to GBP in another of her HSBC accounts. To get HSBC to do it would have taken "up to three days", and the exchange rate was abysmal. On my recommendation, she used TransferWise instead, saved almost £300 on the exchange rate and it moved within an hour. YMMV, but in UK I've literally never seen big banks be cheaper than TW.

Had a friend with a similar problem, simply moved the funds via Revolut which gives you a bank account of the local currency at either side.

this is essentially what transferwise does imho.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#48
post #29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does your accounting work? Is your accountant also up to date with the 2019 program? Are there any caveats to this that you didn't mention? Are they all contract 1099? What about healthcare and retirement contributions and considerations?

I never understand why people bring up accountants or taxes when talking about cryptocurrencies. Seriously, you negotiate with your employer an hourly rate, you get paid that hourly rate and is what you should report. The way you receive your salary at the end of the day (bank transfer or crypto) is completely decoupled from this. In the same way you don't need to tell the taxman what bank did you use to receive your…

All you’ve done is make it clear that you have never run a business.

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#49
post #40
post #16

Please don't send checks.. I can't think of a more annoying way to get paid! Regardless of the accounting particulars which have been discussed here, there's bound to be a much better way of actually paying folks.

This seems like a silly thing to be annoyed about. Checks don’t have fees like most other types of electronic payment, and money is money. Why would you be OK with giving up a certain percentage of your hard-earned money just because you have to go through the “hassle” of dealing with a piece of paper? Many banks even accept the check deposit via app now - you don’t even need to go to the ATM. Edit: I’m talking about…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you pay your remote team?

#50

We use cryptocurrencies. Fast. Free. Immutable and provable. This is 2019 guys. Get with the program.

This has worked well for me and is what converted me to being a crypto-vangelist. Anyone who's tried to pay a team in india in USD and had it often take well over a week will appreciate when you can get it done in under 45 min using crypto.
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