[asterisk-biz] OT: Paying people in faraway (Western) places.

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Wed, 2009-01-07 at 16:19 -0800, Nitzan Kon wrote:
> I'm pretty sure you cannot directly employ someone who lives in 
> Britain in an American company. For starters it's illegal for
> you to employ anyone without a valid working license in the US,
> not to mention you can't withhold taxes for Britain.
> 

That would depend on the I9 requirements.  Working in an overseas office
is legal, however it may be questionable if there is no corporation for
them to work it - meaning that the UK govt may have issues, but I do not
believe that I9 requirements apply to workers who are physically outside
of the US.  Oil rig workers in international waters come under special
rules as a result of this, and because they are paid creatively they get
around that $80k/year (or so) US citizen not living or working in the US
tax floor, if you are a US citizen who has lived and worked abroad for
decades, you still have to pay taxes to the US govt if you earn more
than whatever that floor is.

Yeah talk about silly, taxing people because they are citizens not
because of where they work ...  

The economy is down, governments are lowering taxes, they are not able
to tax as much because there is less money moving, as a result they
appear to be getting ready to be more aggressive with people who they
can squeeze.  Be warned, I expect several assaults on people and all
that the govt feels its entitled to the majority of their income as a
mafia style "protection fee" (pay or bad things will happen to you).


> As far as actually sending the money... depending on amount
> the cheapest will probably be international wire transfers.
> 
xoom.com $5 wire transfers, there are limits and issues though.  But
they do an ACH from your US account and send it to their bank account
(or western union type points in some countries).

I have used them, they can be silly about their identity requirements,
but its cheaper than direct from my bank.


Now for the US want to really bake your noodle?  How can you fill out
the IRS 1040 personal income tax form without waiving your 5th amendment
right to not incriminate yourself (whether or not you have anything to
hide)?  The answer per a judge is you cant, but you cant cite his ruling
either because it would devestate the ability for the IRS to function.
You cannot be compelled to waive your rights, and the 1040 more or less
demands that you do just that.  If you dont file you cant get any money
that you overpaid, and the law states that generally you will have to
overpay through withholdings.  

But no one cares about this, so they never write their lawmakers and no
one ever deals with this issue.  

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
pgp key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x8AE5C721

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