Reply to: Work from home gigs - Ltd Co UK work from Spain

[oliverson]

Do we have anyone knowledgeable on - Work from home gigs - where the work from home is from
your Expat home in Spain ?

For I wonder if it's possible for contractors who have become British Expats in Spain to do British - work from home contracts ?
With the added caveat since Brexit of maintaining their Spanish residency with a view to getting the 5 year permanent Spanish residency card.
Some British Expats who would like to do the 'work from home contracts' but not fall foul of loosing Spanish residency come full Brexit after Article 50 would like to know.
So I wonder ( so long as the British client & Agency accept it - maybe written in the contract ) whether it's possible to do these Work from home gigs using your UK Ltd company status. With money being paid into the Expats British bank account.
No doubt with tax being deducted in the UK less tax deductible expenses being a Ltd Company. Although of course - one would also have to declare UK earnings in Spain in the annual Renta being Non Resident UK but Resident in Spain.
Now here's the questions.
1. Is it legal ?
2. Can one do the gig using UK Ltd company status when Non resident UK but resident Spain ?
3. Can one claim protection from being taxed twice on UK earnings. Under the UK - Spain double taxation treaty ?
4. Maybe contractors who have done the British - work from home gigs from another EU country like Spain, have found it best to go for Autonomo status in Spain and get one's earnings paid directly into their Spanish bank account ? With no fuss taxation in Spain but no doubt HMRC might not accept such arrangements ?

This is close to my heart and rather spooky because I'm on the same lines. However, I don't plan on relocating to my place in Spain permanently, just several months over the winter, split into two stints. The idea is that I market the concept as nearshore rates but onshore quality. What I'm trying to achieve in this is total location independence so that I don't have to be sat in somebody else's office 4 or 5 days a week. Most of the work will probably be done from my home in the UK but at other times in Spain. The nearshore concept is mostly an illusion but more likely than me saying I want 100% remote working.

I plan on chopping around a third off my day rate, which isn't so bad seeing as I have around £ 100+ of expenses per day (accommodation + travel). I mostly contract in London banking and whilst my current rate isn't the best, £ 650 is usually achievable. If you apply c. 10% agency fees to that you have approaching £ 720. 30% off gives me £ 480 which is a good rate for the north of England and a very good rate for Spain, and an excellent one for WFH. With banks under pressure to move development to lower cost centres, I feel this could prove enticing. My approach to gaining business would be to canvas previous managers/colleagues. It might just work.

[stek]

Depends if you're officially out of UK.

If just 'on holiday' in Spain and happen to be remoting into UK over internet, then keep everything officially in UK and pay the Spanish nothing other than the 500 euros for the private villa with pool and internet each month.

The longer you're in Spain the harder it will be to stay under the radar though.

Under the EU directive you cease to become a visitor after three months then must register locally as a student, worker, work-seeker or self sufficient person. Then you are on the local tax radar.

[Hobosapien]

Depends if you're officially out of UK.

If just 'on holiday' in Spain and happen to be remoting into UK over internet, then keep everything officially in UK and pay the Spanish nothing other than the 500 euros for the private villa with pool and internet each month.

The longer you're in Spain the harder it will be to stay under the radar though.

[VectraMan]

WFH here. They don't care which country I'm in as evidenced by one of my colleagues. It's something I've thought about doing, but the contract is with my UK Ltd. and I'd want to keep it that way.

The issues will be personal tax, which probably isn't so hard to sort out, and running a UK company from abroad, which sounds a bit problematic at best. Plus thanks to the Brexit numpties the right to do this may be taken away and who knows what hoops you may have to jump through.

Even £15/hr might not be so bad if you're living cheap in semi-retirement.

[northernladuk]

I got that too, it also came with an apology about the rate!

You are on the same mailing list as PC. You must be disappointed.

[stek]

This one?

My client require a Linux/Virtualisation Administrator to join their team on a 12 month contract basis, where you would be required to work from home at a rate of £15/hour (not negotiable).

In order to qualify, we require individuals with the following skillset:

At least 4 years experience in Red Hat Linux
At least 2 years experience in VMWare and Virtualization Technologies
At least 2 years experience in IT Security Compliance
At least 2 years experience in system management/monitoring tools
At least 2 years experience in operating systems services (NTP, DNS, SMTP)

I got that too, it also came with an apology about the rate!

[Scruff]

Got emailed a gig the other day. Spot on skillset 100% WFH. Got a bit excited....

£15 an hour. Really.

Not sure what these people expect for that?

This one?

My client require a Linux/Virtualisation Administrator to join their team on a 12 month contract basis, where you would be required to work from home at a rate of £15/hour (not negotiable).

In order to qualify, we require individuals with the following skillset:

At least 4 years experience in Red Hat Linux
At least 2 years experience in VMWare and Virtualization Technologies
At least 2 years experience in IT Security Compliance
At least 2 years experience in system management/monitoring tools
At least 2 years experience in operating systems services (NTP, DNS, SMTP)

[WTFH]

emigrants.

Depends which way you're looking at them from.

[cojak]

they're called immigrants, just like everyone else.

emigrants.

[BlasterBates]

If you work in Spain, you can use your Ltd, but you need to register with the local Spanish tax authority and tax yourself in Spain.

You wouldn't be paying tax in the UK as you are working in Spain and your business is there. This is surprisingly common as small European companies do like to use the UK Ltd to run their business.

I would visit a Spanish accountant.

If you tax yourself as a UK business whilst working in Spain, it is almost certainly not legal.

EU rules allow companies based in other countries to do business where ever they want but you pay tax in the country in which your business is run, in this case Spain. The business is where the work is done, not where the client is.

[MattZani]

Do we have anyone knowledgeable on - Work from home gigs - where the work from home is from
your Expat home in Spain ?

For I wonder if it's possible for contractors who have become British Expats in Spain to do British - work from home contracts ?
With the added caveat since Brexit of maintaining their Spanish residency with a view to getting the 5 year permanent Spanish residency card......

they're called immigrants, just like everyone else.

[northernladuk]

Yes - I was quite amazed myself - with a staggering 2,230 jobs - that are Work from home Contracts advertised on Jobserve in the last 7 days alone.
Although if you were to include Permanent as well as Contract - that brings the total upto 6,717 jobs that are - Work from home, posted on Jobserve, so
far this week.

No doubt there's savings on providing office accommodation, equipment, etc.

Linky?

[psychocandy]

Got emailed a gig the other day. Spot on skillset 100% WFH. Got a bit excited....

£15 an hour. Really.

Not sure what these people expect for that?

[Tightfit]

Loads of work from home Contracts

Isn't worth a reality check though. How many gigs are there that are 100% work from home, let alone another country.

Yes - I was quite amazed myself - with a staggering 2,230 jobs - that are Work from home Contracts advertised on Jobserve in the last 7 days alone.
Although if you were to include Permanent as well as Contract - that brings the total upto 6,717 jobs that are - Work from home, posted on Jobserve, so
far this week.

No doubt there's savings on providing office accommodation, equipment, etc.

[Pherlopolus]

My current contract is 95% work from home, with occasional trips to London (and bangalore!), We have a contract PM who lives in USA and is in london 1 week in 4 and works through UK Ltd still. we also have a client side technical contractor who moved to Aus mid contract, not sure how he bills though.

It's not unheard of, but I certainly wouldn't expect it all the time.