Earning salary from USA remotely from New Zealand?
"Can the companies from USA give job to me (I am from New Zealand)? Job as being employee - may be tricky. This depends on the labor laws in New Zealand, but most likely will trigger ""nexus"" clause and will force the employer to register in the country, which most won't want to do. Instead you can be hired as a contractor (i.e.: being self-employed, from NZ legal perspective). If so, what are the legal documents i have to provide to the USA for any taxes? If you're employed as a contractor, you'll need to provide form W8-BEN to your US employer on which you'll have to certify your tax status. Unless you're a US citizen/green card holder, you're probably a non-US person for tax purposes, and as such will not be paying any tax in the US as long as you work in New Zealand. If you travel to the US for work, things may become tricky, and tax treaties may be needed. Will I have to pay tax to New Zealand Government? Most likely, as a self-employed. Check how this works locally. As for recommendations, since these are highly subjective opinions that may change over time, they're considered off-topic here. Check on Yelp, Google, or any local NZ professional review site." Yes. You must register for GST as well, if you will be making over the threshold (currently $60,000). That's probably a bonus for you, as your home office expenses will mostly include GST, but your income will most likely be zero-rated. Check with an accountant or with the IRD directly. Just be certain to put aside enough money from each payment to cover income tax, GST and ACC. You will get a very large bill in your second year of business.
I still have my bank account active in usa. Can my company legally   deposit my salary in my bank account? Of course they can. Where they deposit is of no consequence (in the US, may be in India). It is who they deposit it for that matters. You need to file form W8 with the company, and they may end up withholding portion of that pay for IRS. You'll need to talk to a tax adviser in India about how to report the income back at home, and you may need to talk to a tax adviser in the US about what to do if the company does indeed remit withholding from your earnings. Hi u/Sagiv1,  Short answer: Yes, you do have to pay taxes in Israel for all your worldincome.  Long answer: All countries within the OCDE consider you as a fiscal resident in the country where you spend over half a year in (183 days and up). If you do not spend that much time in any country, there are other tying measures to avoid people not being fiscal residents in any country.  Since you are living in Israel, you will have to pay all your worlwide generated income in Israel, following the tax regulation that is in place there. I am no Isarely Tax Lawyer so I cannot help you there.  Having a lot of business internationally brings other headaches with it. Taking for example the U.S. there is a possibility that they withold taxes in their payments. It is unlikely, though, as they have a Tax Treaty to prevent double taxation. You can ask for this witholded money to be returned from the U.S. or other countries through each country's internal process.  Another thing to take into account is that you can be taxed in other countries for any revenue you generate in said country. This is especially relevant for revenue that comes from Real Estate. The country where the real estate is will tax you in the country and you will have to deduct these taxes paid in your country, Israel in this case. If there is no tax treaty you might possibly be paying twice.  I know you said you do promotion, but I have to warn you about this, because I ignore what other countries tax or do not tax. So been giving more info won't hurt.  If the US is the main and/or only country you will be doing business with, I strongly recommend you real the Tax treaty with lots of love and patience. You can find it here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/israel.pdf or here:  Treaty:http://mfa.gov.il/Style%20Library/AmanotPdf/005118.pdf Amendment: http://mfa.gov.il/Style%20Library/AmanotPdf/005120.pdf  If you are from Israel and prefer it in Hebrew, here are the treaties in your language:  Treaty: http://mfa.gov.il/Style%20Library/AmanotPdf/005119.pdf Amendment: http://mfa.gov.il/Style%20Library/AmanotPdf/005121.pdf   Normally most IRS Departments have sections with very uselful help on these sort of matters. I'd recomment you to take a look at yours.   Last, what I've explained is the normal process that applies almost all over the world. But each country has their own distinctions and you need to look carefully. Take what I said as a starting point and do your own research or ideally try to find a tax consultant/lawyer who helps you.  Best of luck. "Find approximate housing-cost difference, which is likely to swamp the tax differences. Find a cost-of-living measurement you believe for each state and figure appropriate state's sales tax on the non-housing portion of it (numbers can be found on line). Figure out roughly what your state income tax would be (forms on line). Figure city sales tax for each city you'd live in (again, numbers on line). Determine transportation cost differences. Determine entertainment cost differences (""First prize: one week in Hackensack. Second prize: TWO weeks!"")  Mix and add seasonings to taste... Then remember that many people commute into the City, including from NJ, so run the numbers that way... and think about how much time you're willing to spend communting every day (and via which forms of transportation); the worse the commute, the less housing costs. Then remember that companies in NYC are aware of all the above, and are likely to adjust their salaries to partly offset it... because otherwise they couldn't recruit anyone who wasn't already a Noo Yawker... so the real question here is whether their adjustment, plus not living in Noo Joisey, is enough to make up the difference for you. To get more accuracy than that, you need to start nailing down specifics. Possible. Not trivial." I would just rely on the salary from my job in the US. If you don't have a job in the US, you're very unlikely to get a visa to move there and look for work, and so the question of how to take money there (except for a holiday) doesn't arise. (Unless you have dual Portuguese/American citizenship.) I believe moving reimbursement has to be counted as income no matter when you get it. I'd just put it under miscellaneous income with an explanation. "What theyre fishing for is whether the money was earned in the U.S.  It's essentially an interest shelter, and/or avoiding double taxation.   They're saying if you keep income you make outside the US in a bank inside the US, the US thanks you for storing your foreign money here and doesn't tax the interest (but the nation where you earned that income might).   There is no question that the AirBNB income is ""connected with a US trade or business"".   So your next question is whether the fraction of interest earned from that income can be broken out, or whether IRS requires you to declare all the interest from that account.   Honestly given the amount of tax at stake, it may not be worth your time researching.   Now since you seem to be a resident nonresident alien, it seems apparent that whatever economic value you are creating to earn your salary, is being performed in the United States. If this is for an American company and wages paid in USD, no question, that's a US trade or business. But what if it's for a Swedish company running on Swedish servers, serving Swedes and paid in Kroner to a Swedish bank which you then transfer to your US bank? Does it matter if your boots are on sovereign US soil?  This is a complex question, and some countries (UK) say ""if your boots are in our nation, it is trade/income in our nation""... Others (CA) do not.  This is probably a separate question to search or ask. To be clear, the fact that your days as a teacher or trainee do not count toward residency, is a separate question from whether your salary as same counts as US income." Fear tactics posted above, likely by IRS agents. Yes, you qualify based on the residence test. You perform your work outside the US. You gather business data in a foreign country. The income is excluded. No, but it's not crazy out of reach of the salaries you listed, either.  Heck, you even made a provision for $250k.  And it's certainly over the $100k threshold.  But sure, if all you are is a worker bee you're not going to make that.  As long as you're quoting developer salaries, you're not going to make that.  The question is where you go after being a developer, if you ever move past that.  And yeah, there's a big difference in the number of people that make 100 vs 300. Having lived in both places, I have to say you can find a higher income in the US for the same job and can live in a small town versus having to live in a big city in Canada to find decent salaries.  For similar sized cities, the cost of housing is significantly lower in the US than Canada.  That is your biggest factor in cost of living.  If you are thinking of NYC or San Francisco, there are no comparable size cities in Canada and you would probably be better off in Canada.   My tax preparer was amazed at how much I paid in Capital Gains taxes when I left Canada.  Maybe it is different now but I doubt it. The biggest free lunch in the US is a generous capital gains exemption when you sell your primary residence without any lifetime cap or cap on the number of times you can do it.  There are rules on how long you have to live in it before selling. For investment real estate, all expenses are deductible in addition to fictional depreciation so with a mortgage you can have positive cash flow and pay no income tax.  You can keep doing tax deferred exchanges into bigger and bigger rentals.  When you are close to retirement, you can exchange into your ultimate beach home, rent it out a few years, then convert to a primary residence. "My employer decided to pay my salary in India after I submit a form W-8BEN. This means that the wages / salary is deemed accrued for work from India. Hence your employer need not withhold and pay taxes on this wage in US. Is this payment taxable in the States since I am staying outside of States? Should I declare this income to IRS in case if I go back to the States later this year? No tax is due as the work is done outside on US. If you go back this would be similar to as you had gone first. Depending on your ""tax residency status"" you would have to declare all assets. If my US employer wires my US salary to my NRE account is that taxable in India? This is still taxable in India. It is advised that you have the funds transferred into a regular savings account. Please note you have to pay taxes in advance as per prescribed due dates in Sept, Dec, March. how does the Indian tax man identify if it is a taxable income and not just the regular remittance. This question is off topic here. Whether income taxes finds out about this is irrelevant. By law one is required to pay taxes on income earned in India." Where do you plan on moving to?  Does your job allow you to work remotely? Or are you quitting and getting a job in the new location?  Seems to me that the US is still the best place to be, although I must confess that you might have a point about the US becoming a police state. "Your ""average company and taxpayer"" generally wouldn't have significant off-shore/foreign income. In the U.S., for example, even if you have your employer deposit all of your salary to an account at a foreign bank, they would still report it to the IRS as income. Removing the money from your home country isn't what gets it out of being taxed, it's that the money was never in your home country." "Income generated from online sales is not considered ""passive income"", so you need to be authorized to work in the U.S. Those without work authorization can acquire passive income (through investments, lending, competition/contest earnings, etc.) In order to sell products on eBay (the description you've given leads me to believe that this is operated as a business), you need to be authorized to work in the U.S., and register a business. See:" I'd share my google sheet I have comparing the two, but in the interest of keeping myself at least a little private, I'll use a made up situation with real numbers.  **Meet Bob.**  Front End dev.  Single.  5y exp in industry.  Likes to live well, in a nice place.  Has no expensive hobbies, or otherwise uncommon expenses.  [Makes 70k in Indianapolis](https://www.paysa.com/salaries/indianapolis,-in--l).  Lives off 50k, puts 20k in the bank yearly.  Receives job offer in Valley. Lets say he makes 170k, which is easily possible.  With a small company, you might expect ~120k.  With a giant, you'd probably be looking at ~200k+.  Both numbers include any RSUs.      **Salary Sources for San Jose**  San Jose was chosen, as many sites simply lump this greater area together as San Jose.  Its just easier, and does not make a huge different in the numbers.  I'm not a front end dev, but 170 is in the ballpark of my offers with larger companies in the valley, as a personal data point.  * [Paysa, which sources salary reports from actual professionals.  Typically from more larger, established companies \(Google, MSFT, Facebook, Linkedin, Amazon, etc\)](https://www.paysa.com/salaries/san-jose,-ca--l) * [Indeed, which is much more bottom of the barrel generally speaking.  No large company is throwing their job on Indeed.](https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Javascript&amp;l=San+Jose%2C+CA)  **Cost of Living**  Lets see how the COL breaks down.  Im using [this breakdown of what people spend their money on](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-americans-spend-most-of-their-money-2017-1) to get ideas.  Lets say Bob was spending 60k in Indy, saving 20k/yr.    * Rent - $1400/mo apartment, $17000/yr * Food - $20/d, $7300/yr (Bob is a bad cook/lazy) * Transportation - it looks like we can [estimate high and say 10k](https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budget) * Taxes - $14k - https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#FB9ktMO6uP * 10k on other misc. - Healthcare, Entertainment, shit around the house, new socks, etc  (breaks down to $190/wk)  **Total: ~60k**  Lets first try just using COL calculators, which were in the ballpark, but generally high, compared to what I found when breaking down my own expenses.  * [Salary.com says 100% COL increase.](http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/Layoutscripts/Coll_Result.aspx) * [Nerdwallet says 100% COL increase for SF \(SJ not available\).](https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/indianapolis-vs-san-francisco) * [Numbeo puts Consumer prices, including rent, to be ~50% higher.](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&amp;city1=Indianapolis%2C+IN&amp;country2=United+States&amp;city2=San+Jose%2C+CA&amp;amount=4%2C500.00&amp;displayCurrency=USD)  For the sake of argument lets run with the the assumption it costs Bob double to continue his standard of living, based off the above.  As you mentioned, and as I fully agree, housing is the biggest expense, so lets check my assumption there.  A Zillow search for Sunnyvale proper, very close to all of the tech giants HQs, shows [1BR in good conditions and of decent size \(700sqft+\) run anywhere between 2.3k to 3.5k](https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/Sunnyvale-CA/condo,apartment_duplex,townhouse_type/54626_rid/1-_beds/37.395016,-122.002616,37.348838,-122.064414_rect/13_zm/).  Lets plan for the worst, and say its 3.5k.  Thats 42k/yr.  Living this close (literally biking distance) is a luxury, but lets say Bob hates commuting, so hes willing to pay as such.  Lets not forget Uncle Sam, and more specifically, California's uncle Sam, which is extra greedy.  He will want [roughly 65k](https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes#kMLNaWg8M9), rounding up.  The other big expenses are food and transportation.  Lets say food is 50% more expensive, going with your argument.  7300 * 1.5 = 11k.    Lets say the same for Gas, and general transportation (there is no parking situation in the greater valley - that is a San Francisco downtown city issue, so ignore that).  10 * 1.5 = 15k  Same for everything else.  50% markup.  That laptop in Indy that cost 2k now costs 3k (absolutely not true, but lets roll with it.) . Healthcare too.  10k * 1.5 = 15k  Total San Jose / mid-valley COL: 15k + 15k + 11k + 65k + 42k = 130k.  So using high estimates for everything, Bob now spends 130k of his new 170k salary.  **He now gets to save 40k, double what he did before**.  He also now hopefully has a great name on his resume which will literally open doors, a RSU package which will refresh yearly, **making him earn 500k/yr within a decade**, and will be at the center of his industry.  Keep in mind, this is only coming at this from the mindset of someone in tech.  If I wasn't in tech, I would never, *ever*, ***ever*** consider moving to the valley unless I was bankrolling some other job.  But for tech, the logic is there.  I'm sorry if I upset you, but I've literally broken down my expenses and done all this math for my actual situation.  Lets not even get started with the other perks.  For a large tech company, which is a very realistic goal for someone decently good and easy to work with in tech, you get unlimited vacation, a free for all budget of 2k for training, free lunch and snacks, shuttle service if you live in main hubs (the city, etc), great weather, can ski and surf in the same day - all things you likely do not get in a midwest tech job. "You don't want to do that. DON'T LIE TO THE IRS!!! We live overseas as well and have researched this extensively. You cannot make $50k overseas and then say you only made $45k to put $5k into retirement.  I have heard from some accountants and tax attorneys who interpret the law as saying that the IRS considers Foreign Earned Income as NOT being compensation when computing IRA contribution limits, regardless of whether or not you exclude it. Publication 590-A What is Compensation (scroll down a little to the ""What Is Not Compensation"" section). Those professionals say that any amounts you CAN exclude, not just ones you actually do exclude. Then there are others that say the 'can' is not implied. So be careful trying to use any foreign-earned income to qualify for retirement contributions. I haven't ran across anyone yet who has gotten caught doing it and paid the price, but that doesn't mean they aren't out there. AN ALTERNATIVE IN CERTAIN CASES: There are two things you can do that we have found to have some sort of taxable income that is preferably not foreign so that you can contribute to a retirement account. We do this by using capital gains from investments as income. Since our AGI is always zero, we pay no short or long term capital gains taxes (as long as we keep short term capital gains lower than $45k)  Another way to contribute to a Roth IRA when you have no income is to do an IRA Rollover. Of course, you need money in a tax-deferred account to do this, but this is how it works: I always recommend those who have tax-deferred IRA's and no AGI due to the FEIE to roll over as much as they can every year to a Roth IRA. That really is tax free money. The only tax you'll pay on that money is sales tax when you SPEND IT!! =)"