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yep. People vastly underestimate how difficult the logistics of "pay an employee for services" can be, particularly when you don't have a legal corporate presen

by mjr00 3y ago

yep. People vastly underestimate how difficult the logistics of "pay an employee for services" can be, particularly when you don't have a legal corporate presence in the country where the employee resides. There are services that handle this for you and they charge a 30-40% premium on top of the employee's salary. And sometimes this is still worth it, because many countries charge an absolutely obscene incorporation fee for foreign-owned businesses.

bmitc 3y ago
> People vastly underestimate how difficult the logistics of "pay an employee for services" can be That's the company's problem.
- skrebbel 3y ago
  It’s not. If I have to pay some service or agency a lot of money to be able to employ you, there’s less money left to pay you. Employers at distributed companies don’t look at your take-home salary, they look at the total cost to employ you. Fees and taxes differ wildly per country, there’s no other way to compare. So if a large % of that total cost goes to middle men, then that makes you a more costly employee at no benefit to either you or the company. If I’m considering two people for a job but one is in a place where paying them well means I spend a huge amount on fees (or “employer-side taxes” for that matter, looking at you Austria), I might well choose the other.
- MattPalmer1086 3y ago
  Yep, and they choose not to have it unless there's some compelling reason to. We've got staff in many countries, but it's not a blanket "work from wherever you like".
skrebbel 3y ago
Fwiw companies like Remote and Deel charge a fixed fee of substantially less than 30-40%. IIRC we pay about 600 euros per employee per month to Remote. That’s a lot of money that I’d rather give to the employees themselves, but it’s much much less than 30-40%.
mejutoco 3y ago
Having a freelancer registered in another country paid is not as complicated as people make it to be (pay an employee for services). As contractors. The complication is the company prefers to work in one/a few jurisdictions only and have "proper" employees. It simplifies a lot for the company.

by mjr00 3y ago

bmitc 3y ago

> People vastly underestimate how difficult the logistics of "pay an employee for services" can be That's the company's problem.

skrebbel 3y ago
It’s not. If I have to pay some service or agency a lot of money to be able to employ you, there’s less money left to pay you. Employers at distributed companies don’t look at your take-home salary, they look at the total cost to employ you. Fees and taxes differ wildly per country, there’s no other way to compare. So if a large % of that total cost goes to middle men, then that makes you a more costly employee at no benefit to either you or the company. If I’m considering two people for a job but one is in a place where paying them well means I spend a huge amount on fees (or “employer-side taxes” for that matter, looking at you Austria), I might well choose the other.
MattPalmer1086 3y ago
Yep, and they choose not to have it unless there's some compelling reason to. We've got staff in many countries, but it's not a blanket "work from wherever you like".

skrebbel 3y ago

Fwiw companies like Remote and Deel charge a fixed fee of substantially less than 30-40%. IIRC we pay about 600 euros per employee per month to Remote. That’s a lot of money that I’d rather give to the employees themselves, but it’s much much less than 30-40%.

mejutoco 3y ago

Having a freelancer registered in another country paid is not as complicated as people make it to be (pay an employee for services). As contractors. The complication is the company prefers to work in one/a few jurisdictions only and have "proper" employees. It simplifies a lot for the company.