- I'm from New Zealand,
I live in Europe and I work for a US tech company.
Let me tell you more about how I ended up in the situation,
how I get paid,
what the heck is up with taxes
and how this international remote role works for me.
(lively music)
I've been working remotely for more than six years now
and I've found that this is something
that people are often really curious about
'cause it is a bit complicated.
I got a ton of questions when I asked on Instagram
what people wanted to know about this.
So let's jump in.
First off, visas.
Do I need a US work visa to be doing this job?
And the answer is no, I don't
because I'm not actually employed by a US company.
While I am very much like part
of the core team at ConvertKit,
I am not an employee.
I'm hired on a contract basis.
I believe there are some US tech companies
that do create company entities in like the UK,
Germany or like other European countries
and they'll hire people in those countries
as employees of those business entities
if you follow me.
But that's not how it works for me.
I'm on a contract to be paid a certain amount per month
to do work for ConvertKit.
Although like I said,
I do operate very much as a core team member.
I'm in all the team meetings, attend team retreats.
I am a part of the team,
I'm just not an employee and you do not need a US work visa
to contract for a US company
if you're doing that work from outside the US.
And as we're being a New Zealander living in Spain,
I'm actually also part British.
I have a British passport and I moved here before the UK
did the very stupid thing of pulling out
of the EU and I have my residency card for here in Spain.
How am I paid and what currency am I paid in?
So I submit an invoice to ConvertKit every two weeks
for them to pay my business.
That invoice is in US dollars.
So currency exchange rates do impact
how much I actually receive in any given month.
That's like one of the risks that you take on
as a contractor for a US company.
But given that what a US company will pay for someone
in my role compared to a company that is based in Europe,
it's like a risk that I'm willing to take on.
And just a tip,
make sure you subscribe to my channel because very soon,
I have coming my latest income report video where you'll get
to hear exactly what it is that I earn.
So then what about taxes?
This seems to be the number one thing
that people wanna know about.
So I don't pay any tax in the US
because I am not a US tax resident.
I don't live in the US, I don't work in the US.
I'm a contractor and part of being a contractor
means handling your own taxes.
When you're an employee,
I believe in most countries it works like this,
tax is taken off your paycheck before you receive it
and like the company pays
or at least like holds those taxes on your behalf
for the most part.
But when you're a freelancer,
self-employed, a contractor,
you need to manage taxes yourself.
So I'm paid a like full amount from ConvertKit
and I have to make sure that A,
I save enough of that to pay my taxes and B,
that I pay the correct amount of taxes for where I live.
Because of how complicated tax laws can be,
and especially here in Spain,
I have accountants to help me with that,
which makes it easy.
You just have to keep good records and remember
that you can't spend everything
that you earn earn or you're gonna be in trouble
when it comes time to pay your tax bill.
Taxes work very differently in every country.
So my advice if you're in a similar situation
is to find an accountant.
It is worth paying for their services
to make sure you get it right
because it is your responsibility to pay the right taxes
and not the responsibility of the company
that you're contracting for.
Do I get benefits?
So someone asked if I only get two weeks' vacation time
'cause I work for a US company,
and someone else asked about health insurance too.
So this completely depends on the company
and how they wanna handle it.
But ConvertKit gives me pretty much the same benefits
as the US employees get for the most part.
Sometimes they're just handled a little differently,
like I get an additional stipend to pay
for my own health insurance,
whereas the US employees get insurance
like through the company,
as is pretty common in the US but there are some things
that a US company cannot give to a contractor.
Like they can't pay for your equipment, for example.
A contractor needs to provide their own equipment
to do the tasks that the company is contracting them to do.
Someone also asked if ConvertKit pays
for my electricity bill and no they do not.
And I get four weeks' vacation time,
which is the same as the US employees get.
Collaboration and time zone differences.
So I don't have to work strictly US hours.
Since ConvertKit is fully remote,
we do a lot of things asynchronously
and we're just like trusted to get our work done.
But I do need some amount of crossover
with the US time zones
since that's where most of the team is based.
And since we're mostly split across like North America
and Europe, meetings tend to happen in the US morning time,
which is the afternoon here in Europe.
I don't end up working nine to five,
I'm more like noonish to around 7 PM in the evening.
I would much prefer to end my workday earlier,
but working a little bit into the evening,
having that like Workday shifted a little bit later
is absolutely worth it for me to get
to earn the US level of income.
And lastly, how the heck did I get this job
in the first place?
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you,
but I don't have like a secret hack
that can help you land a role for a US-based company
as an international person.
I got my job essentially through networking.
I was speaking at a conference
and I met our CEO Nathan there.
He was looking to hire a designer
to work on marketing things.
I'm a designer who works on marketing things.
It just worked out.
But I know that that is absolutely not relatable,
not something you can emulate.
So I'm sorry.
Even though remote roles now are a lot more common
than they were three years ago,
unfortunately, many companies still only hire within the US
either because they're not good at working asynchronously
and they wanna like make sure people are working
in the US time zone
or perhaps they just don't wanna have to deal
with hiring contractors or setting up a foreign entity
of the company.
I don't know.
It is a shame though
'cause there's a lot of talent around the world.
My advice to you if you live in Europe and you wanna work
for a US company is to just really keep looking
for opportunities 'cause they do exist.
Filtering to worldwide on Remote OK job board
can be a good way to find them.
Keep your ear to the ground, you know,
get involved in the community, do some networking yourself.
But I also recommend just focusing
on leveling up your skills
and making yourself truly an expert in your field
because global remote jobs have a lot of competition.
You can expect that any job you're applying for
will have hundreds if not thousands
of other applicants as well.
So you can stand out if you can really showcase your talent
and show that you are the right person for the job.
If you wanna learn more about the work
that I do at ConvertKit,
then go watch this episode
of my podcast Inside Marketing Design
where myself and David,
the senior brand designer on my team,
we talk about our work, our processes, our projects.
I am very grateful to have this job.
I love what I do and I'm grateful that I get
to share my work with you too.
So thanks for watching.
(tranquil music)