Comment by danwee | Hacker News Reader

Comment by danwee | Hacker News Reader

> Malta rolled out a “nomad residence permit” late last year that allows non-European Union remote workers earning at least €2,700 ($2,755) a month to live on the Mediterranean island nation for up to a year. (Digital workers from elsewhere in the EU aren’t included in the program, as they don’t need a permit to work in Malta.) The Maltese government has since processed more than 400 applicants, the majority from the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

But, if you go to Malta and live there more than 6 months per year, and work as a software engineer, you will have to work for a company based on Malta... unless the company you are working for has a branch in Malta or is using an intermediate company to hire you. Same for any other country in Europe. Many think that "Oh, I'll work for a German company earning German money while working from a beach in Portugal". Well, that's definitely possible, but the vast majority of German companies hiring remotely: a) do not have a branch in Portugal, and b) do not use intermediate companies to hire talent. So, more often than not, if you want to work from Portugal more than 6 months per year your pool of companies to apply for will be mostly Portuguese ones.

Also, even if you think "oh well, then I'll work from Germany 6 months and 1 day per year, and from Portugal the rest of the year", that may not work for some companies. Some companies, allow you to work from abroad (within the EU) but for a maximum of 3 months (becaues of health insurance issues).

All of this applies if you are an employee. For contractors, that's different.

That's certainly true, but the vast majority of remote workers I know work as freelancers, which solves this completely and relatively easily.

It's no major hassle - you email a invoice once a month, add a line to a spreadsheet, and hire a English-speaking local accountant to do the filings (in Spain this costs ~€30 a month). In many cases you save money overall, since coworking, laptops, software tools and relevant SaaS subscriptions you might've paid for yourself are now all deductible business expenses (i.e. you pay 50+% less, after typical income tax + VAT).

The practical day to day is identical, since most remote-focused companies I've talked to have a standard policy of benefits (standard working hours, paid holiday, minimum notice periods, etc) for their remote freelancers abroad and for their local employees (notably though you can't be a freelancer locally in many countries, as it's considered disguised employment - employee if the company has a local presence, contractor otherwise). Of course, that's only true for companies who are comfortable with remote work, which ime is common for software dev & startups but rare elsewhere.

Your mileage may vary, but for me and many people I know across Europe it's an easy fix that's no big problem.

> coworking, laptops, software tools and relevant SaaS subscriptions you might've paid for yourself are now all deductible business expenses

That has also applied to those in USA not doing foreign nomad thing. In USA, an LLC keeps things tidy for the business expenses including conference travel.

>you will have to work for a company based on Malta...

I think that's what these residency permits and visas are designed to change. It specifies non-EU remote workers (read: Canadians and Americans) What you're describing sounds like it would likely apply to EU residents only - as a way of mitigating the complete free transfer of movement/labor it allows.

Isn’t the usual solution for this to just be a contractor? Everyone I know who remotes from a different country is just doing this. Maybe there’s some rules I don’t know

In Most countries of the EU (if not all), you are required to have more than one or two clients to legally be a contractor, otherwise you are a “fake employee.”

Modern Employer of Record services make all of this quite easy. There’s some additional cost, sure, but in my experience if you’re trying to hold on to talent it’s well worth it. As a bonus you avoid all the pitfalls of trying to pass off an employee as a contractor.

Disclaimer: I work for Remote

The other issue is the risk of your employer having Permanence Establishment in a new country which creates corporation tax obligations.

i do not believe that this is true. as a european citizen i have the right to live anywhere in the EU regardless if i even have a job or not. so the location of my employer should be irrelevant.

can anyone find actual laws to the contrary and evidence that they do not violate EU-law? a quick search by myself turned up nothing.

cross-border employment has been common for decades, so such a limitation would be very surprising.

what is possible is that employers may shy away from the resulting complexity because the employee needs to pay taxes in his country of residence, and not that of the employer.

Just be a contractor?

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