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Comment by Alex63 | Hacker News Reader

Aren't there tax implications for "working" in another country?

Most countries would define "working" as earning money from an employer within that country itself, hence depriving citizens of that country of a prospective job.

That's wrong. I know from big corps that employees always have to ask for work permission when going to the US (or other countries) for things like development, even for one week. For most countries in the world you actually need a work permission to do that. Single exception is when you do customers meetings all the time and have a secretary typing for you.

Except no one can verify what you do exactly. You always tell the immigration officer at the airport (if he/she asks you) that you're visiting for "meetings". But who does meetings 9-5 every day for 2-3 weeks?

Basically you're OK as long as you don't get paid for your work there. My friend works in the oil/gas industry and he keeps flying to different countries frequently and works there for almost 3-4 weeks. But he doesn't get paid in that country (he gets some per-diem allowance but that's all).

I suspect they're doing all of this while on tourist visas, which may or may not be entirely kosher depending on where they're traveling.

Of course, it's also extremely unlikely that they'll get caught (except, perhaps, as a result of bragging about it on the Internet...). A guy, or bunch of guys, sitting on the beach with laptops isn't exactly an atypical sight.

Still, they might want to pick their destinations based less on the quality of the beaches and nightlife, and with more consideration towards those which aren't going to try to skewer them for taxes or visa fees if their scheme gets found out.

There certainly can be - I had a colleague who was working in the US for our UK based company and after a mix up by the tax advisers he ended up being taxed twice.

Depends on the country. Hong Kong is happy to have me for a month at a time without levying any taxes. In the US, not so much.

I spend 6 months of my year living in N. Ireland while I continue to work for my US based company. The UK hasn't expressed any concern about this so far or asked me to file tax documents. If I was working for a UK company though that would be another matter.

Not if you're paid in your home country in your home currency. This is how consulting firms do it.

That may be true in some countries, but not all. When I was based in Canada, working on projects in the States, and paid in Canadian dollars, if I spent more than a certain amount of time in the US (I think it was 180 days), I was liable for taxes in the US. Due to the Canada/US tax treaty, I was not taxed twice, but I had to show that I had payed taxes in Canada equal or greater than what I owed in the States (not hard).

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