Ask HN: How do you manage payroll and compliance for foreign remote employees?
I run a very small marketing science consultancy (www.gradientmetrics.com) and we are fully remote. We are hiring our fourth employee (yay!) and this person is in the Netherlands. I am in NYC and I have one employee (W-2) in the US and a FTE in Warsaw. For the employee in Poland, we can just use Transferwise and the only legal thing we had to do was for him to set up a company to invoice and accept payments. In the Netherlands things are more complicated and it looks like we’ll have to use some kind of payroll provider. I know many companies represented here are fully remote so we cannot be the only ones wrestling with these logistical issues. I was hoping there’d be like a “Justworks for international companies” that I could plug into, but c’est la vie. Are there any platforms or systems that I should know about? Any tips or words for the wise would be hugely appreciated.
> What are the problems in employing people as contractors rather than employees?
No problems for me, but there would be huge problems for the new employee. In the Netherlands, it's illegal, as the contractor has to have >= 3 clients. It also causes problems with access to social services and healthcare.
It looks like, for the Netherlands at least, that there are some local providers that handle this. One I found (and will probably go with) is Orange Tax — www.orangetax.com
For other reasons, looks interesting. Thanks for the recommenation!
From what I have heard they charge around $1500 base fee per country so not economically for a lot of business.
What are the problems in employing people as contractors rather than employees?
No problems for me, but there would be huge problems for the new employee. In the Netherlands, it's illegal, as the contractor has to have >= 3 clients. It also causes problems with access to social services and healthcare.
It looks like, for the Netherlands at least, that there are some local providers that handle this. One I found (and will probably go with) is Orange Tax — www.orangetax.com