Close to 100% of them are on tourist visas and are explicitly not allowed to work in the country. What else do you think an illegal immigrant is?
Can you share the source for this data? I find it exceptionally difficult to believe.
I do not condone people doing anything illegal. But you can maintain the lifestyle of a 'digital nomad' while not breaking any laws whatsoever. I definitely do not believe that 'close to a 100%' of people would risk their jobs, the wrath of the tax man and potential prison time by not abiding by the relevant legislature, especially given that there are usually many available options.
But it entirely depends on local laws. Canada allows you to work for non-Canadian company that has no business in Canada. Things, a bit more complicated when you sell goods and services in Canada, though.
Spain has new digital-nomad visas that allow working in company that aren't in EEA. Before that, like many others EEA countries, they didn't allow working on tourist visa.
Yes. As we've been learning for 20+ years from the music industry. If you restrict easy access to what people want or make unrealistic demands, then people just side step you. But if you make it easy and accessible people happily pay.
Obviously the details vary, but frequently the terms are as egregious as
1. Regardless of length of stay we now want a % of your annual earnings
2. The process involved takes orders of magnitude longer than your stay
3. The typical legal fees involved is orders of magnitude greater than what you'll even earn in the time period, meaning your best alterative to "No" is actually to take time off, paid or unpaid
4. You're literally bringing them an opportunity so it feels unjust to be barred. An opportunity to have tourist income -- something that many countries _pay_ to compete for.
There will be a massive upside for the first country to have a safe desirable location, with fantastic internet, and visa policies that make sense in the above rubric.
If I go on a vacation and respond to a few work-related emails, am I breaking any laws because I'm working on a tourist visa? Yes, that is ad absurdum, but I'm trying to point out that it's not as clear cut. There is a line that international treaties define, and staying someplace (sometimes even up to 6 months) and working there doesn't necessarily have any income tax implications for you or your employer.
Law isn't code. Reasonable people (judges, normally) are able to decide what is "actually working" and "incidentally working while on vacation".
It's not about whether you're working for a Mexican employer or not when you're in Mexico. It's about whether you're working at all.
Yes, but 'work' also has a legal definition. My research mostly involves Canada, so I will cite from the IIRC [1]:
"What kind of activities are not considered to be “work”?
An activity which does not really 'take away' from opportunities for Canadians or permanent residents to gain employment or experience in the workplace is not “work” for the purposes of the definition.
- long distance (by telephone or Internet) work done by a temporary resident whose employer is outside Canada and who is remunerated from outside Canada;
...
We recognize that there may be overlap in activities that we do not consider to be work and those activities which are defined as work not requiring a work permit in R186. However, the net effect (no work permit required) is the same."
So yes, you can work remotely from Canada, while on a tourist visa, for a foreign (non-Canadian) employer.
A lot of OECD countries have treaties (look up 'double-taxation treaty between A and B'), that govern this.
1 - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...
My point, which I also made in another comment in this thread, is that law isn't code.
If you spend 3-6 months every year on a tourist visa in Canada working for your US employer, Canada's going to cotton on eventually and take action. If you do it a few weeks a year, you'll likely be fine.
Their test is "are you directly or indirectly competing with a Canadian worker?". If your employer is really ok with you being abroad 3-6 months/year then they should, presumably, also be ok with hiring Canadians or legal permanent residents to do the same work 12 months/year from Canada.
>for your US employer
US/Canada have a very interconnected labor market, so in this context your comment is perfectly valid, and I would guess there are additional rules for this specific case. For literally any country other than US though, I don't see why it would be an issue for Canada or the country of origin, even if you do it repeatedly year over year.
Unless you're intimately aware of the intersection of tax and immigration law between Canada and every other country on the planet, that's a rash statement to make.
> Letting your employee be out of the country for 3-6 months every year on a tourist visa is a lot different from actually getting incorporated in that country and paying income taxes there.
Except that the company's responsibilities may extend far beyond just incorporating and paying income taxes. Every country's tax system is different and weird.
Companies don't require their employees to tell them their real address just to be mean, or to prevent labor arbitrage. They have genuine, legal reasons to do this.