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

[SIP]

Alex Balashov wrote:
> You mean, someone working outside the country still has to have taxes 
> withheld on their behalf as though they lived in Canada, but eventually 
> the withheld amount is recovered?  What do the employees have to do on 
> their side?
>
> In this case I am more interested in the interactions with UK law than 
> anything else.  My understanding of US law suggests pretty clearly that 
> I don't have to do anything on the US side for someone who is neither a 
> US/territory resident nor a US citizen.  I hope my understanding is correct.
>
>   
Actually, that's not the case. The US wants whomever you pay to pay
taxes if it's a US corporation (or even a Foreign Controlled
Corporation). If you pay an employee, and that employee is a citizen of
another country, never sets foot in the US, makes money on purely non-US
clients, and gets paid in non-US currency, the IRS still requires that
person to file a tax return in the US (and requires you to file
appropriate paperwork).

With us, we have a foreign controlled corporation in the Bahamas. Half
the owners of the corporation are non-US residents/citizens (living
outside the US). The IRS still requires them to pay taxes.

It's a laughable system, but that's the IRS for you.

N.