Originally Posted by
FredAnderssen
I have a friend who runs a tour company. Typically a group of seniors pay him to arrange trips, busses, airplanes, and hotels in places such as China, Russia, Ireland, and now Cuba. He travels with them and guides them every step of the way. He is, for all intents and purposes, "on the clock".
He must be working illegally in all those countries, I suppose.
As long as he was working with the correct permissions and kept himself up-to-date with the tax requirements in each jurisdiction and paid any taxes due, he would be legal. I presume from your post that you're saying he never gained a work visa or paid taxes in these countries, so yes, he would be working illegally. As a former tour guide myself, having worked in 18 countries, I was lucky to have an employer that invested much time and money in an entire department to ensure that we were legal. It's a pain, but compared to the consequences of getting caught working illegally in some of those countries, compliance is the better deal.
And why is abiding by the law so bad? Yes, it can be complex and reduces your income in most cases, but that's part and parcel of doing business internationally.