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Ask HN: How hard is it to hire international remote workers?

11 points by alphagrep12345 ↗ HN
If you're in USA/UK/Australia and are trying to hire remote workers from another country, how hard is the legal process? Is this something a small startup could think of doing? Or do they just not do it because of the legal hassles?

8 comments

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jimmyvalmer
Employee or contractor? Employee is always a pain. Contractor, on the other hand, seems like a home run for all parties. In the US, no tax reporting or withholding as long as the contractor does all the work remotely.
davismwfl
Be careful with the no tax reporting, that is not totally true. If you are a US business sending even modest sums of money to foreign bank accounts you do have reporting requirements to the US government and you may have tax obligations owed to the destination country. Other countries don't have the same laws as the US, and at least in some cases I have avoided hiring contractors from certain Countries in the past because I was advised since it was work for hire we would be required to pay tax on the money that was "imported" into the destination Country.
jimmyvalmer
My sense was get the W-8 BEN from the foreign contractor, and you're relieved of all reporting and withholding. The burden is entirely on the contractor to his home country.
davismwfl
Yea, it can be pretty easy in many cases, but it is case by case depending on the destination Country and citizenship of the receiver. This also gets more complicated if the contractor visits the US in relation to their business with you, at which it can be argued they have transacted business within the US and now that may change the status in the US too. It also makes a difference if they are contracted as a business in their home country or an individual, as that changes the rules some too.

I don't disagree about using good people wherever they are, just I am cautious on blanket statements anymore cause so many things can bite you and the rules aren't always so straight forward when you cross international boundaries. So the key is just to get some legal/tax advice so you know the best way forward. It is definitely very doable and doesn't have to cost a fortune if like you said it is a true contractor and they do not hold US citizenship or travel to the US for business and they are working from a Country the US has a treaty with. It can get more complicated if those aren't the cases.

edit to add this: Also if you do business in their home Country, e.g. sell a service even over the Internet that can change the tax situation too in their home Country for you (based on their Country's laws). Another thing to always consider, doesn't rule anyone out, just something to ask about.

jimmyvalmer
Your useful-information-to-words ratio is very low. Exceptions to US tax law fill entire bookshelves, we all know this.
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davismwfl
To do it legally & properly it is a pain and does require a lot of setup and isn't generally super cost effective. I highly suggest no small business try to "hire" internationally at least based on my experiences dealing with it. If you want to use international people do a contract type relationship which while it can still put you under tax scrutiny it is a lot easier to manage and do. Either way you will need legal advice because the moment you start having someone in another legal jurisdiction start doing work for you there comes with it different IP laws, protections or the lack there of and stuff like that. So you need legal advice to protect the business both at home and abroad.

This is at least as a US Company, I don't know about how UK or Australian businesses might differ.

alt_f4
Pretty easy if your remote worker has a LLC. You get an invoice for services and file it like any other business expense.

It's quite hard if you want him to be an employee though.