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

[Drew Gibson]

Alex Balashov wrote:
> So, the "open a branch in the UK" idea is sort of out unless I was 
> looking at hiring an entire staff there, which I'm not.
>   

You can register a UK company for about £50 and there will be accounting 
costs of around £800 per annum for statutory reporting.

> How do people get around this bullshit?  I mean, I know folks out there 
> who are running highly professional, virtual software development crews 
> of individuals scattered all over the world and connected by online 
> collaboration tools, and seem to be able to make it work pretty well.  I 
> think we'll start seeing more of that kind of thing.  I don't see these 
> guys bogged down in massive accounting overhead, having twenty companies 
> registered all over the globe, nor worrying much about juggling twenty 
> tax regimes.
>
> Alex Balashov wrote:
>   

Hi Alex,

I was working as a contractor over in UK a few years back and had to 
investigate a lot of this BS, all be it from your potential employee's 
perspective rather than yours. Note that my experience was around 
2005-6, laws can change quickly in this area.

The UK have pretty strict laws around "contracting" due to misuse of the 
system by some industries. Unfortunately, the IT sector is caught up in 
that.

My suggestion would be that you hire your guy through an "umbrella 
company". He will be an employee of that company and receive his pay and 
benefits with a small commission (<2% IIRC).
I'm afraid I don't know the setup from your perspective but I imagine it 
will be relatively straight forward esp. if you have a UK company. They 
take care of all the legal aspects and have a special relationship with 
the UK taxman.

The company I used was http://www.parasolgroup.co.uk/ whom I found to be 
cheap, reliable and responsive to any queries. There may be others who 
specialise in dealing with foreign companies.

As for the international tax perspective, I'm in Canada and I quickly 
discovered that this was not a DIY job. Sort out the above first then 
talk to an accountant who has international experience.

regards,

Drew

-- 
Drew Gibson

Systems Administrator
OANDA Corporation
www.oanda.com