[jsjohnst]

> ok i work 100% remote, can I claim my sisters address in Texas in texas for my payroll and actaully live in new york?

That’s an entirely different issue. Yes, New York state will likely take issue with the scenario you describe, but not at the federal level (what this thread is about). Further nobody, but you, was indicating lying about their address.

[dominotw]

> That’s an entirely different issue.

how is it different?

OP is claiming an address in USA for payroll as his residence but it isn't actually his residence. How is this not fraud.

[jsjohnst]

Reread their post again, there is no mention of lying about their address to their employer. Based on your other comments, it seems you assume that all employers wouldn’t maintain a salary if someone moves, which isn’t true (yes, it’s common for employers to adjust salaries for that reason, but it’s not an automatic given).

[dominotw]

Really shocked by this. I had no idea there are employers who doesn't adjust your salary from US salary if you move to an entirely different country.

all the examples i know of like gitlab, mozilla ect adjust it to local country comp.

anyone know if such an employer actually exists in US?

[jsjohnst]

> anyone know if such an employer actually exists in US?

Yes. I’ve personally seen it happen multiple times at different employers, each with unique factors.

There are way to many factors at play here to make broad assumptions that no employer does it...

- first and foremost, Covid changed everything when it comes to remote salary norms

- Duration of move (some employers would be more lenient for 6-12mo vs permanent move)

- level of seniority (which correlates somewhat with how hard it is to replace said employee if employer says no)

- how long as the employee worked for employer (another factor in how much it impacts employer if employee moves anyway and goes to work for another company)

- how bad the employer wants to retain said employee (Multiple previous emplayers, big and small, have made exceptions for specific coworkers)

- it’s important enough to mention again, Covid changed everything.

[dominotw]

> There are way to many factors at play here to make broad assumptions that no employer does it...

Yes you can make broad assumptions that almost no hr, payroll, legal dept of any company is setup to deal with taxes, labor laws ect across hundreds of different countries.

Yes exceptions exist.

> - it’s important enough to mention again, Covid changed everything.

No it didn't. Do you have even a single example of an employer thats allowing ppl work longterm from whichever country they please due to covid?

[jsjohnst]

> Do you have even a single example of an employer thats allowing ppl work longterm from whichever country they please due to covid?

Yes, I do, but I’m not doing your research for you. You’ve been extremely combative and flat rude and incredulous this entire thread, so I’m stopping my participation. If you genuinely are in pursuit of knowledge and not to just pick random fights on the Internet, then I implore you to use a different approach.

[pault]

In my case, a company called Pathable based out of Seattle, a company called Optify based out of Seattle, and a company called iCracked based out of San Francisco. I don't know what the heads of their HR departments would say if you asked them, but everyone I worked with was aware of my situation and no one ever questioned it.

[pault]

I have worked for several small startups in Seattle and the bay area that didn't say anything about me being in Brazil, Thailand, and Belize. In each case I was earning around $120k/yr on salary.

[dominotw]

Sure but did you change your payroll address? What was the address on your payroll?

[pault]

Sorry, I replied to one of your other comments but didn't mention it here: no, I used my mom's address. I had all of my mail sent there, mostly lived in monthly rentals, and renewed my tourist visa whenever it was up. When I did go back to the US I stayed with my mom, and I kept most of my stuff there, so you could make a good faith argument that it was my primary residence (in the US).

I'm pretty sure the only gray area in this arrangement is "working in the US" while staying in another country on a tourist visa, but it's pretty ambiguous. I'm working for a US company and getting direct deposits to a US bank as a US citizen. If I am on a trip to another country and I sign into my company's VPN for a work-related video conference, and maybe fix some bugs, am I working illegally? Maybe, but immigration laws aren't really written with that scenario in mind.

This is a topic that frequently came up in conversations with ex-pats, since once you start doing this you'll end up meeting lots of other remote workers doing the same thing. On the one hand, you are injecting a lot of money from your home country into the local economy, which increases GDP and supports local businesses. On the other, you are using public services without paying taxes to the host country. In practice, you can't use services like universal healthcare or free education without being a legal resident, so it's debatable whether your presence is a net negative for the local economy. It's probably not legal, but like I said, the immigration laws don't take this scenario into account. I was forthright with all of the immigration officials I spoke to and all of them just kind of shrugged their shoulders and renewed my tourist visa anyway. I figured that some countries would start writing new legislation and creating new types of visas to take advantage of this scenario, and we can see this happening now.

If your question is "is this legal", the answer is "it's complicated, but probably not". If you're asking if it's possible to do this long term, the answer is yes, it's not only possible but pretty easy. I was able to do this for almost a decade with no issues whatsoever. I'm glad that some countries are starting to think about this, because I'd much rather live with confidence that my work situation is accounted for than have to wonder if my residence there is dependent on the interpretation of each individual in the immigration department.

[throwaway894345]

OP is not claiming an address in USA.

[sokoloff]

citation needed (that OP is claiming a US address as residence).

[dominotw]

> cushy US salary

What exactly does this mean. then?

[sokoloff]

The salary typically paid to a US-based employee. It's a number, not a latitude-longitude coordinate.

[dominotw]

> It's a number

What range of numbers qualify as 'cushy US salary'.

This is really absurd to classify range of numbers as 'us salary' , 'indian salary' ect.

[sokoloff]

If I tell you just two things: Person A is a software engineer making a US salary. Person B is a software engineer making an Indian salary.

Do you have any reasonable suspicion as to which person is making more? I think most people do.

[jsjohnst]

Means a well paid job from a US company. There’s no implication of fraud there.