How to take advantage of telework?
 

Hi,

I pretty much work from home and just need reliable internet and VPN. Im ok with paying for flights but paying for hotels at a new place to work/hangout such as HKG can get expensive. Does anyone here have experiences or advice on how to travel and work while living within a budget?

Stay in Shenzhen instead?

In all seriousness though, you can get a decent deal in any of the higher priced Asian cities if you watch flash sales, learn the tricks and utilize BRGs as much as possible, for hotels off the major chains like Shangri La (& Traders), Best Western, etc., the use discount sites like Asiatravel, Agoda, Hoteltravel, etc. Most chains won't BRG to them unfortunately but if the points would be orphaned anyway then doesn't matter. Cash & Points deals can be another way to save a boatload in Asia sometimes.

Renting an apartment is much cheaper than staying in chain hotels. Check out sites like Roomorama, Airbnb... In most cities you can find great places for 1000-2000$US per month.

I do some work from home. But if a client wants me on site, the client has to pay airfare, hotel and expenses.

+1, emphasis on "expenses".

Why would an employer/contractor -- which wants their workers to telework from home -- want to cover the airfare, hotel and expenses for any of all such workers to change where they live when they are employed/contracted to perform work that can be performed from anywhere with reliable internet and VPN connectivity but requires no move?

It seems to me that the OP shouldn't exoect the current employer/contractor to eat the costs of the OP's transition to living in a lower-cost location or lower-cost lifestyle.

It's funny that you mention Shenzhen because I actually rented a place in Shekou a few months ago because it allows me to be close to my clients in HK without having to stay in HK. I also happen to love Shekou (not much culture to speak of, but it's a really comfortable place).

You are not the first nor the last.
Many retire HKers who have right to reside in China has bought flats in SZ and gave their HK flat to their kids to create grandkids.

Most expensive cities it make more sense to rent service apartment/suites. IMHO it is more "homely", you have a kitchen to use and separate dining/working/sleeping area where housekeeping is rearranging your desktop everyday.

Sad that I can telework from anywhere in the world and yet I can't travel. Wife works busy job, 2 kids, mortgage...etc. If only I had this job when I was 22 years old!

Take all the money you save from not having to commute or buy work clothes and sock it away for lots of fun weekend trips. Since you telework you can take advantage of lower fares on non peak flights and then work from the hotel till it is time to go out in your destination city.

A little confusing.

1) You tele-work but are homeless? Option A) Get a home. Option B) Keep on keeping on.
2) You tele-work but are assigned work locations? Option A) Tell work to pay to play. B) Keep on keeping on.

i have a home but im looking for places to travel to and work from for cheap. say im based on east coast USA and i feel like teleworking in Seattle or Paris. airfare aside, rent/lodging can get expensive really fast.

I really don't understand what you are trying to do. Of course it is expensive to maintain a home/apartment and then pay for an additional travel location. Your other option is to become "homeless" and live with your parents then you can take all the money you normally spend on rent/utilities/insurance and put it towards travel. If you are cool with the homeless aspect you can do lots of couch surfing, Airbnb, etc.

You can also learn to churn credit card offers and start to rack up lots of points and live off of the points, but this only works if you have a big enough revenue stream and good credit to go with it.

I would only recommend you invest in an RV.

Since time zones don't seem to matter, the continent would become your oyster.

Parts of Latin America, continental Asia or Eastern/Central Europe may make sense as a sort of temporary place to hang out and work while maintaining your home in the US. If you wish, you may want to consider renting out your US home while abroad to minimize expenses of maintaining the US residence and free up funds for other uses.

Suggest you talk to your accountant before you make a final decision.

You appear to be an American citizen. Thus any income you have anywhere in the world is subject to US income tax. Some countries (don't know about France) will also tax you if you are residing there while working. Some countries have reciprocal tax treaties with the US, some don't. You need to make sure.

Virtually every country is going to tax you for income you earned while in their country.

To make it worse, some countries (Kazahstan was one that hit me once) have a policy that if you are in their country more than 182 days in a calendar year, your entire world wide income is subject to their income tax, not just the income you got while in their country. And they don't have a tax treaty with the US. So if you land in one of those countries you could get taxed twice.

DR Congo, for instance, has an income tax for foreigners of 90%. (Or at least they did in 1999 when I was there.) Though you're probably not headed there, you should look at income tax rates for foreigners if you leave the US.

If you stay in the US, think about state income tax. If you maintain a legal residence in New York, for example, but park your RV in California they will both try to tax you.

Bottom line, talk to a tax expert to make sure you don't accidentally hurt your finances.

Good point about the tax considerations. In practical terms, if the OP keeps changing countries every 29 or so days and doesn't aggregate more than 90 days in any calendar year in a given country, then it's very unlikely that non-US tax authorities will go after the OP's income from an employer or contracting party in another country. The US IRS however will still have its claws in the US person.

First, you didn't do a very good job of explaining your situation and what you are really asking buttking but I think I understand what you were trying to say.

1. You have a job that can be done online from anywhere.
2. You would like to take advantage of that and spend varying periods of time living in another country while continuing to work online. In simple terms you want to become a Digital Nomad.

OK, first, most of the responses are by people who seem to have trouble seeing outside their little bubble of a world or don't understand your circumstances and what you are asking. So you can just ignore those responses obviously.

Second, as far as I can see, so far, no one who has any experience of living in other countries while working remotely has responded to you. If they have, they haven't said so. So you can ignore most remarks that are not based on experience.

You would do better to post on a forum where you will find a fair number of people who are doing exactly what you want to do.

A site like Lonely Planet's Thorntree for example has plenty of 'Digital Nomads' who post regularly and have experience in doing what you want to do. I would suggest you start by doing some research here: https://www.google.ca/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=...digital+nomads

Then join and post on forums where you will find people with experience. When you post though, post a clear post that provides the relevant info. So for example:

'I work from home online and can do so remotely. Therefore, I am considering becoming a 'digital nomad' for periods of X time per place. I would like to find places where I can live on a budget of Y per month which should include rent, food, high speed internet as a minimum. I prefer Z (cities, village, beach, mountains, etc.) type of locations. Where can you suggest?'

X being time is important because some people want to be a full-time nomad which is different than someone who wants to say spend 2-3 months in a place between returns to their home base. They have different criteria and issues to deal with.

Y being budget, means you don't get suggestions that don't fit your budget obviously and which would be a waste of time for the writer and you the reader.

Z being location, is important since presumably a big part of the reason for doing this is to experience living in other places that are of interest to you. That means you need to say what your interests are (other than work related criteria).

For example, you can live on say a Greek island for around $2K USD per month and for up to 3 months without difficulty. Issues re taxes don't arise if you are under the radar. If however you wanted to live there for a year, then issues of Immigration and taxes do raise their head and you have to deal with them. That is why many Digital Nomads move every few months or alternate between their home base and other locations.

It IS possible to become a 'non-resident for tax purposes' in pretty much whatever your home country is and leave taxes behind you but it is a complicated thing to achieve. GUWonder, just to follow on your comment, unless you have experience in this, I would not make assumptions about it. I lived in ONE country legally for 7 years while being 'non-resident for tax purposes' in any country.

If someone decides they do want to work from a home base rather than become a true Nomad, they should look at where is it best to have their home base for tax purposes. For example if you are an American buttking as people are assuming, some states offer more advantages in terms of no state taxes on your company or personal income. Wyoming as an example has no tax on company or personal income.

Becoming a Digital Nomad can be done simply but to do it well takes some thought and research to see what will be the best way for you as an individual.

I'm not new to this game, nor to the game of funding US persons in it and making sure they consider how the IRS keeps its claws in US persons even when such persons spend little to no time living in the US. ;)

Don't know about the others, but I have spent the last 3 decades working all over the world including a whole bunch of telecommuting.

Translation: It's not illegal if you don't get caught. Not the best advice, IMO. If you try it and *do* get caught not only are you nailed for taxes but most assuredly some expensive penalties and likely some time on the wrong side of some iron bars. I don't recommend it.

Not in the US. If you are out of the country more than 11 months in a calendar year, you can take an extra deduction on your income, but you still pay full taxes on everything you made above that deduction.

But even coming home for Christmas or to see your family counts toward that 1 month in the US. If you come home 3 times a year for 2 weeks each, you get no deduction. And you have to *prove* to the IRS that you were out of the US. In doing so, you expose yourself to taxes in the country where you were when outside the US. The IRS will talk to tax authorities in those countries.

And before you ask, this is based on at least 10 years personal experience where I qualified for FEIE.

From the IRS web site: "If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to an amount of your foreign earnings that is adjusted annually for inflation ($91,500 for 2010, $92,900 for 2011, $95,100 for 2012, and $97,600 for 2013). In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts."

I'm sorry guys, I don't mean to be rude or denigrate anyone's knowledge but each of us lives in our own bubble and our knowledge only extends to that bubble.

My bubble happens to include knowledge of how to become 'non-resident for tax purposes' in a country which taxes you on world wide income, does not allow ANY (no $90K per year as per the US) income to be excluded and considers you 'resident' if all you do is maintain a bank account in the country or own a piece of property or renew your driver's license. It may be that the IRS in the USA has no such thing as 'non-resident for tax purposes', I don't know.

But only a good tax accountant familiar with how to go about legally not having to file with the IRS can tell us all how to go about it. Do any of you live in that 'bubble'? It might well be the way out is to renounce citizenship or become a 'stateless' person. That would be an extreme but if you can pick up another citizenship (I happen to have 3) it isn't necessarily a big deal.

My point was that the OP needs to provide more relevant info on just what he wants to do. He might be getting paid in the USA, only looking at 3 months elsewhere per year and have no issue over taxes, happily paying his share to Uncle Sam.

That's much different than deciding to pay no taxes in whatever the OP's home country is and becoming a real digital nomad.

I spent the last 25 years paying no income taxes in ANY country. I currently (since age 65) do have to file income tax in one country because I collect a government pension. Even so, that is the ONLY income I file a report on and pay NO taxes on it either. All perfectly legally.

Obviously, I am not going to go into detail, all I am saying is if the OP (or anyone else) wants to do something, there is usually a way to do so, not easy, requires serious research and probably professional help, but possible.

If what you are doing is above board, then why not elaborate?

How to take advantage of telework?
 

A good accountant is worth his weight in gold. I would advise anyone who makes decent money to find one.

The way he describes what he has done is not only probably illegal but a really bad way to end up life. The only way you can do what he describes is to deal mostly with cash and have no fixed assets. Which means you can't buy a house. And you can't have a pension. And you can't have large investments. Which means you get to spend your golden years living of a government stipend which won't cover a decent place to live. Having nothing and being on the edge of homelessness while you are constantly looking over your shoulder for the cops to catch up to you is not much of a life, IMO.

It is legally possible for US persons to become non-resident for tax purposes. But to do that and thereafter be absolved of future U.S. tax and tax reporting obligations probably requires giving up US citizenship and/or US resident/immigrant status; and/or living on a very low/no income of one's own.

No one in this thread -- except perhaps that FTer -- can properly claim that what that FTer has done is "probably illegal", unless you are privy to that FTer's personal details and relying upon the person's personal details not communicated in this thread.

As that FTer is referencing non-US persons who may be citizens/residents of countries that tax worldwide income, there are definitive situations where that FTer is not incorrect and there is no probability of illegal non-compliance with tax rules when assets and income streams are structured properly under the laws applicable to such persons.

The world is a diverse place and what may seem non-compliant to those with a bias for, or knowledge base constrained to, the rules for US persons, the notion of what is probably illegal and not goes out the window. Keep in mind you are talking about the actions you attribute to an FTer rather than to people in general. ;)

Emrdoc, when I wrote 'Obviously, I am not going to go into detail', all that meant was there is a LOT of detail and it applies ONLY to me and my situation. Therefore, there would be no real point in trying to explain something quite complex. Don't jump to the ASSUMPTION that it means there is something to hide.

Tchiowa, what have I described? I have not described what I do but I have stated it is all legal. That you do not have the knowledge necessary to know how it can be done does not mean you are right. In fact, you are wrong and I do not like you trying to suggest that I am a liar. I suggest you consider whether making such remarks about someone might raise a moderator's attention.

As for assets and investments, etc. that's hilarious. In fact, it is the person with a lower income who would probably find it next to impossible to achiever an income tax free existence. It takes money to achieve. VivoPerLei has it right when he suggests a good accountant IF you make 'decent money'. ie. enough to warrant employing an accountant to structure things to your best advantage from a tax viewpoint.

Why people want to disbelieve what I have written is interesting. But it is a subject for a psychology forum perhaps, not a travel forum. I wrote what I wrote to the OP to explain that the OP needs to clarify what he wants to achieve. In simple terms, a part time break away from home or a full time change in status. Why not try sticking to the topic the OP has asked about and forget about trying to tell me what I am doing is illegal.

I am in a similar environment and I do not see any need for lying or covering up of illicit activities.

To minimize tax as well as many other issues there are many factor to consider depending on:

• What citizenship you have or is entitled to.
• Where you can legally reside. It is easy to enter as a tourist but that does not offer permanent residency.
• Where can you legally "work" or pergorm services for a fee.
• Where can you legally carry on a business.
• Where can you legally bill for services rendered.
• Where can I maximize my fixed monthly income.
• Where can I maximize my after tax investment income.
• Healthcare.
• Quality of life.
• Banking services.

After all these consideration and paid advice does one go about selecting residency and business domicile.

I can understand not publicly sharing quality information obtained at a cost.

Commander Bond said it the best: " I can tell you but I am going to have to kill you!"