You're almost universally not allowed to take local work.
But many (the vast majority in my personal experience which tends not to extend to countries with a lot of paperwork requirements) either explicitly allow business purposes like conferences and meeting with customers or don't care.
If you decide to remote work from someplace for a month or two, I might not get a co-working space or blog about it, but in most cases no one cares.
Businesses purposes usually has a strict definition that doesn't extend to operating a business from said country for extended periods of time. Nevermind the tax implications.
Other countries are far more explicit in law that any paid (or unpaid) remuneration is a visa violation. Thailand for example.
> don't care
That's the key phrase here. Personally I don't care that authorities don't enforce their immigration laws but it should be explicitly stated that you are violating your visa on sites such as this and Nomadlist.
But there's definitely legal grey areas. Like, if you're on vacation but have a job back home, are you prohibited from answering work emails? Sending a commit from your hotel room? When does it go from doing work on vacation to 'working'?
For that matter, even if I'm attending an event, meeting with customers, talking to press, etc. I think the only place I've ever needed to get a "business visa" is China. I'm guessing there were other cases where I was technically supposed to but no one does.
But many (the vast majority in my personal experience which tends not to extend to countries with a lot of paperwork requirements) either explicitly allow business purposes like conferences and meeting with customers or don't care.
If you decide to remote work from someplace for a month or two, I might not get a co-working space or blog about it, but in most cases no one cares.