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Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

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Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have to do anything special with regards to vat? You’re selling services to a US company. Just asking

No problem at all. US company pays zero VAT. Any accountant can help with billing and tax reporting specifics.

I was asking because last year I billed a few times from NL a company registered in Florida. My accountant thought for some reason that I had to inform tax authorities over there. But he didn’t have experience with it.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#83
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the company contracting allows the contracting entity to maintain the autonomy and flexibility required then nothing. Just wrapping people in shell companies doesn’t usually avoid the legal tests for whether someone is being treated as an employee or contractor AFAIK.

> "Just wrapping people in shell companies doesn’t usually avoid the legal tests for whether someone is being treated as an employee or contractor AFAIK." What does "wrapping people in shell companies" mean? As a person, you're either employed for a "shell company", in which case you've signed a contract and you get paid a salary - or you're the owner of a "shell company", in which case you get to choose how to manag…

What you’re talking about happens in the US as well, and courts have held that whether you are billing through a corporation or not doesn’t impact whether you are a de facto employee.

e.g., the owner of an LLC who bills through the LLC can still be found to be a de facto employee.

It doesn’t matter that you pay income taxes, what matters is that the employer isn’t paying payroll taxes, withholding income taxes, paying unemployment insurance etc.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#84
post #60

Many US companies hiring people from Europe are treating them as de facto employees but paying them as contractors. This is illegal. It’s not something that the US government has been regularly enforcing. But if the trend continues and ends up on the public’s radar, that will change.

It's not if it's properly structured. That usually means employee having some kind of legal entity (consulting firm) and having proper B2B contract.

The structure doesn’t matter. There’s a 20 part test of employee vs contractor.

If you are treating the contractor as an employee, they are a de facto employee and you should be withholding income tax, paying payroll tax etc..

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#85
post #74
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_self-employment

> "False self-employment is a situation in which somebody registered as self-employed, a freelancer, or a temp is de facto an employee carrying out a professional activity under the authority and subordination of another company. Such false self-employment is often a way to circumvent social welfare and employment legislation, for example by avoiding employer's social security and income tax contributions." Could you…

A company wants an employee, they plan on treating this person as an employee. However the company doesn’t want to pay the additional costs required by regulation. Payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, dealing with tax withholding, overtime where applicable, family leave requirements etc…

So they hire a contractor instead and pay them as a 1099 contractor, or the contractor sets up an LLC and they pay the LLC, or an S-corp.

Doesn’t matter how they pay them, if they treat them as an employee (there’s a 20 part test) they are a de facto employee and it’s false self-employment.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#86
post #2

You're looking for US companies with EU offices, basically. You get an internationally competitive salary, and because they've got a local office, they also comply with the EU's sane employment laws. I don't really have tips - I joined Atlassian in Sydney and transferred to Atlassian France. After a while I managed to find another job using my personal network. At least in France some local companies are starting to…

99% of US companies with EU offices will NOT pay you anywhere close to the US level of money, IIRC the offer I received from Atlassian in Poland some years ago was not even competitive with the local market.

Polish market exploded at the start of this year since the tax changes, your anecdata is out of date.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#87
post #2

You're looking for US companies with EU offices, basically. You get an internationally competitive salary, and because they've got a local office, they also comply with the EU's sane employment laws. I don't really have tips - I joined Atlassian in Sydney and transferred to Atlassian France. After a while I managed to find another job using my personal network. At least in France some local companies are starting to…

US companies with EU offices hire in those offices based on local compensation... quite obviously.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#88
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! These American companies open their offices in order to cut costs. They aren't going to pay the same US salaries except outside of big tech.

Depends, if you're a known good quality they'll pay regardless of location (generally).

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#89
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some companies have different offices in different countries, and one can issue invoices to the one in the US for 6 months and the one in Dubai for another 6 months if that were a problem. I've never heard of anyone in the EU having "exporter" clients in the US to require multiple of them every year though.

It’s because no one is looking at this closely yet, because until recently it wasn’t popular enough to pop up on anyone’s radar. The loophole you’re talking about is alas probably tax fraud, if you are paying from multiple companies that you own to make it look like your “contractor” had multiple clients.

Definitely fraud. I have multiple clients, products and take risks etc; everything associated with a business (a small business but business nonetheless): nothing has been ever faked. Being an employee but trying to disguise it to gain benefits is simply seen as fraud but usually not enough to get caught; many do it.

It has been popular, at least in NL for decades now: people invoicing eachother and moving money around just to make the threshold.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land remote US job while living in living in EU?

#90
60k/yr (USD) - you can find this type of remote positions easily in Europe. Germany/Poland/Switzerland. Currently, this is typical average for contractors for these regions. But real experienced developers (by skill not years of service) currently can make a 100k+ USD on the European market.
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