working remotely for London company from Germany?

[darrenb]

Thanks, some great advice here. I'm beginning to think more and more contracting is going to go remote -- not least due to the economic upheavals in the UK, US, etc.

One issue though with transnational contracting. What happens if you get a bad client, a client that is in financial difficulties you don't know about, or one that simply decides to welch and see if they can get away with it? What have you got to fall back on ultimately? It's got to be tough if you can't show up in Small Claims Court or a Las Vegas courtroom or whatever.

[jamesbrown]

Thanks, some great advice here. I'm beginning to think more and more contracting is going to go remote -- not least due to the economic upheavals in the UK, US, etc.

One issue though with transnational contracting. What happens if you get a bad client, a client that is in financial difficulties you don't know about, or one that simply decides to welch and see if they can get away with it? What have you got to fall back on ultimately? It's got to be tough if you can't show up in Small Claims Court or a Las Vegas courtroom or whatever.

The contract will state the jurisdiction. There are tried-and-tested methods to pursue clients that delay payment, although the specifics of what you can do vary by jurisdiction. Realistically, though, if a loss is actually incurred, it rarely makes sense to pursue it legally, regardless of the jurisdiction (a risk that distinguishes contractors from permies), so do what you can upfront in terms of credit checks etc. and during the contract (looking for patterns, minimizing risk) and just hope you get relatively few of them.

[darrenb]

An update: the prospective client sounds favourable but has suggested that I fly over to them in London from time to time to confer. The question is: if any of the work is performed on English soil, could HMRC conceivably start to take an interest? What if the client insists on paying into a UK bank account? And in pounds rather than Euros? What if the client misreports things to Hector?

In other words, is there anything I should specifically watch out for, and refuse to accept, in order to avoid the spectre of double taxation?

[jamesbrown]

An update: the prospective client sounds favourable but has suggested that I fly over to them in London from time to time to confer. The question is: if any of the work is performed on English soil, could HMRC conceivably start to take an interest? What if the client insists on paying into a UK bank account? And in pounds rather than Euros? What if the client misreports things to Hector?

In other words, is there anything I should specifically watch out for, and refuse to accept, in order to avoid the spectre of double taxation?

There is no "spectre" of double taxation. You're personally taxed where you're resident (companies can be a little trickier) and the treaties are designed to avoid double taxation. If anything, there's a spectre of double "non taxation" in recent times, but I digress...

Anyway, the key here is whether you will meet the requirements for non-residency in the UK and you should pay very close attention to those. In general, there shouldn't be issues, but the rules are much tighter since April 2013, so you'll have to familiarize yourself with them. Why would the client insist on paying into a UK bank account?? If the client insists on dealing with a UK Ltd., that's a different matter, and one of the things I was skeptical about above.