Being paid based on where you're working from is not hugely unusual.
Shouldn't this work both ways? Say, if I live in a country that has a higher cost of living than the company's country, shouldn't I earn more in order to afford rent?
Registering as self employed though is a HUGE red flag here.
This was requested of me multiple times. The thing is, I don't know how is it possible to be an actual employee and live in a different country (working from home) or even a different city? If I am an employee, I'd have to pay tax and get the state benefits (like medical healthcare) in the city where the company is registered and not where I work. Unless I miss something?
I'm a Systems Reliability and DevOps engineer for Netdata Inc. When not working, I enjoy studying linguistics and history, playing video games, and cooking all kinds of international cuisine.
Shouldn't this work both ways? Say, if I live in a country that has a higher cost of living than the company's country, shouldn't I earn more in order to afford rent?
In general yes, but not all companies are this smart or this generous.
This was requested of me multiple times. The thing is, I don't know how is it possible to be an actual employee and live in a different country (working from home) or even a different city? If I am an employee, I'd have to pay tax and get the state benefits (like medical healthcare) in the city where the company is registered and not where I work. Unless I miss something?
Whether or not it's possible is dependent on how the company operates, but it's generally really unusual for it to truly not be possible. I can speak from personal experience in this case, given that I work for a company consisting of a single legal entity that has employees in more than a dozen countries spread across more than 10 time zones (and all the employees pay taxes based solely on where we live and work, not where the company is incorporated). Requesting that you effectively work as a contractor simplifies this because it pushes the requirements for handling your taxes to you (as well as insurance in most jurisdictions, among other things), thus meaning that the company doesn't need to go to the trouble of getting a tax ID in your country or farming payroll for you out to an entity that does have one.
The issue I have with this is not so much that they're asking you to do it, it's that based on your description they're not calling it what it is and properly explaining the implications to you. If you're a self-employed contractor working for them, then in most cases that means that, at least in the US (and I believe in many parts of Europe too):
You're legally responsible for handling your own income taxes relating to working for this company.
You're legally responsible for handling other types of withholding relating to your income from the job (such as social security and medicare in the US).
You're legally responsible for handling your own health insurance if you live somewhere that requires you to have it.
The company is not legally obligated to provide most of the benefits they might be required to provide normal employees, such as retirement plans and insurance.
You probably don't have the same legal protections against wrongful termination that a regular employee would.
The legal liabilities surrounding workers' compensation may be different from those that would be present if you were a normal employee.
Thank you for taking the time and explaining this.
At least now I know it's possible for the company to handle such situations. Thus, if they want me to work remote, they should handle it. Self-employment seems like a PITA to handle for someone that doesn't have multiple "clients".
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Thank you for your input.
Shouldn't this work both ways? Say, if I live in a country that has a higher cost of living than the company's country, shouldn't I earn more in order to afford rent?
This was requested of me multiple times. The thing is, I don't know how is it possible to be an actual employee and live in a different country (working from home) or even a different city? If I am an employee, I'd have to pay tax and get the state benefits (like medical healthcare) in the city where the company is registered and not where I work. Unless I miss something?
In general yes, but not all companies are this smart or this generous.
Whether or not it's possible is dependent on how the company operates, but it's generally really unusual for it to truly not be possible. I can speak from personal experience in this case, given that I work for a company consisting of a single legal entity that has employees in more than a dozen countries spread across more than 10 time zones (and all the employees pay taxes based solely on where we live and work, not where the company is incorporated). Requesting that you effectively work as a contractor simplifies this because it pushes the requirements for handling your taxes to you (as well as insurance in most jurisdictions, among other things), thus meaning that the company doesn't need to go to the trouble of getting a tax ID in your country or farming payroll for you out to an entity that does have one.
The issue I have with this is not so much that they're asking you to do it, it's that based on your description they're not calling it what it is and properly explaining the implications to you. If you're a self-employed contractor working for them, then in most cases that means that, at least in the US (and I believe in many parts of Europe too):
Thank you for taking the time and explaining this.
At least now I know it's possible for the company to handle such situations. Thus, if they want me to work remote, they should handle it. Self-employment seems like a PITA to handle for someone that doesn't have multiple "clients".