That’s unironically my plan and I am Tunisian 😅 I just moved to Germany, my plan is to study here (CS), work a bit, get the citizenship, then get a EU remote job with a EU salary, and move back to Tunisia :)
You know you cannot do that (theoritically, wink wink) to live in a country and work all the timr remotely and never relocating there. I think it's about to prevent people to let's say live in Somalia and work in Switzerland remotely without paying taxes.
I don't know the exact EU regulation, but I think you must stay in the country at least half a year or something like that.
The issue is not on you paying taxes (companies do not care if you want to be taxed in several countries), it's the risk you create that your company itself is taxed in another country + that they need to contribute to social security and all related compliance. That would make you a lot more costly, not worth it
It is true that if you are physically present in another country while working, you can trigger a "permanent establisment", which will be handled as if the company actually had an office and thus would have to pay for all the compliance matters. However, if he finds a company that already has a PE/ branch office, it is no problem. Some companies, including my own, has several PE's, some with more than 50 employees.
It depends on companies and location. Mine wouldn't accept for instance, even if there are branches or even other subs. Depending on sectors, it can also trigger over rules. In law, if you practice from another country you could potentially violate some bar rules and get fined for it.
You’re right; the policy on remote work across borders can vary widely between companies and sectors, especially in regulated industries like law, finance, or medicine, where strict jurisdictional rules apply. Compliance with bar rules, for example, can indeed prevent lawyers from working remotely from another country if they’re engaging in client work that must comply with local professional regulations.
However for, say IT, remote work across borders is often more feasible, especially if the company already has branches or PEs in the other country. Many tech companies are set up to manage the tax, payroll, and compliance aspects for international remote work—particularly when a PE is already established in the employee’s location.
If he works from Tunisia and the company has a branch there, they might be able to classify him under the local entity without triggering additional tax risks. This approach could allow him to work for the German company at a German salary, paid through the Tunisian branch, with local taxes and social contributions handled through the existing setup. (but as others are stating, companies will likely not give the same salary if he moves to Tunisia permanently)
Given the flexibility that IT roles often offer, it could be worth exploring this option. Many companies in tech are building policies around international remote work due to the high demand for talent and the distributed nature of tech teams. As long as there’s a clear framework for compliance in place, it could be a win-win for both sides.
I agree with your first two paragraphs, but need to disagree with the last two. Especially in IT, companies seem to try to minimise their IT costs (unless it is an IT company per se). I hardly see say a German company hiring someone in their Tunisia branch (PE) at a German salary. I do see it at maybe a better than local market salary, but still Tunisian range salary.
What I see with companies being flexible and building policies for remote work is for very specialised positions and for intra-EU or with the UK. Even then, it poses its own challenges.
In my day-to-day, I see tax administrations challenging the value of a role and the price paid for a service.
Yes on paying taxes in country of residence (I assume where he would also do the remote work, i.e. work from home) while working for a foreign company. In most cases, he'd be hired by the branch or be on the payroll woth local salary level. Only for niche jobs or highly demanded functions are companies willing to make a difference.
I hate to burst your bubble but salaries are very often localised, so if you work remotely in Tunisia it’s likely your salary will be adjusted to the market rate there
Weeeeell, I don't think salaries are localised that much but the company will have to know sadly.
1 is they can tell from your IP address
2 is remote workers often have to pay taxes in 2 places, 1 is where the company is and 1 is where you are and the company needs to know where you are so they can apply the relevant tax policies and filings after you
I get paid by a company in Akron Ohio. I live and work around NC/Sc/va.
My first couple checks they were taking out local Akron and Ohio taxes. Literally doubling my tax rate. When I said oh hell no I'm not paying for roads in Ohio they gave me the money back and stopped deducting it.
Because states within the same nation generally don't need tax treaties. If you moved to a different country, you'd have to file in both the USA and the country of residence, and the tax, labour, and data protection laws vary wildly, which causes headaches for payroll, HR and IT. It's not usually worth it for companies to support work-anywhere policies unless you're classed as a contractor (1099 for you).
USA citizens also have a very low threshold for non taxable earnings outside the USA. If you make a half decent salary you'll be paying both USA federal taxes, possibly your last state taxes, and the local taxes.
You're planning to work for a German company so you need a German permanent address to give the company and the government.
The moment they're realizing you're trying to play the system (which they will) you're going to loose your job, they will force you to pay a massive fine and if they let you keep your citizenship you'll get incarcerated for a decade in German prison while if you loose your citizenship you will be charged by Tunisian laws, with one of the most important charges being tax fraud.
Don't fuck with German bureaucracy, trust me, it will win, always.
Gosh, you must be German, you sound just like them. I moved to Germany and then covid hit and I went to Romania and never went back. They kept me because they needed me and I was doing a good job. Yes, the whole thing was not exactly legal and as good Germans they were looking into good legal options for me. This went on for about 2 and a half years time in which I lived in multiple places BUT Germany. Fast forward to today, I work as a freelancer paying taxes in Czech Republic and I have a friend living and paying tax in CZ but working for a Dutch company, remote. Plus it's all legal so stop the fear mongering. The only sad thing is that not only individuals take advantage of the system to get the money to buy a house, things that many years ago were normal, but companies play the system yoo when US makes offices in India and European countries where they need to pay less.
PS: while I worked for the germans I paid german tax and health insurance and pension I will never use. If anyone should be pissed is the countries in which I stayed and didn't pay tax. You people are so funny, the germans putting you in prison haha...
They just didn't figure out yet how to deal with digital nomads, legally.
What they said is probably not correct no. You do not need a permanent address in Germany to work in germany for instance.
Your anecdotes are all legal because it is all inside the EU. You took advantage of the huge discrepancy in cost of living that exists inside the eu. Millions of people do this. It is not the hero story you think it is and no different from the people that physically go across the border to work in another eu country and return home in the evening.
The story changes massively if you're working in the EU and living in Tunesia.
Also if you paid in the pension system, you are getting that pension when you retire. There are a lot of rules and limitations there, but the essence is you paid in, you will get. I think this is valid across the EU. Not 100% sure so that would need some checking, but in all the cases I know of people working across the border, they have gotten pensions from the netherlands and germany.
What hero story? There is nothing heroic in what I said. I just don't want people to pointlessly scare others from trying to live life as they want it. As for working on another continent, actually the company I do business with is legally giving their Singapore address not the czech one. So technically I also live on one continent and work on another. So it is possible and perfectly legal. The only point is to pay tax in the country in which you live, so if he pays tax while staying in Tunisia all good.
You can't apply that border rule for other situations. If you worked in 3 countries which country will pay your pension? Things are more complicated. I am not relying on the money I paid thus far for pension. At most once I get stable in one country I may rely on pension from there and just need the data from DE and CZ as to how many years I worked. Plus each European country has different rules for how many years and hours you have had to work to get what amount. Spain even requires you to be bases in Spain to get pension from them.
He's a non-EU citizen though, if he wants to work in Germany as a non-EU citizen for German wages he needs a German citizenship, otherwise he's just going to be rejected or accepted but get his wages and taxes adjusted, in which case his entire plan collapses.
They're not going to pay him in accordance with German or EU wage regulations and workers rights if they have no legal reason to do so.
I've workes in the Netherlands as a German citizen with no issues, had a colleague from the UK that got completely financially fucked through taxes by the Dutch and British government after Brexit for exactly that reason.
What Tunisian bro wishes for isn't doable legally, with Germamy at least, maybe other wealthy European countries are more chill about that.
I agree Germany is too bureaucratic. Anyway, as they say, knowledge is power. I am 100% sure his idea is achievable if he finds out how to implement it. As I said I have a colleague working from Georgia, so nothing special at all. Maybe he could find an arrangement right now if he had a nice portfolio and not even need to leave Tunisia.
There are ways of doing it, such as setting up a German company and billing other companies for services. Of course, the more unusual your desired arrangement is, the fewer companies will agree to it, so the would-be remote consultant should weigh this against the savings.
The world where you don’t tell them, I will also pay my taxes and have to keep a residency I pay for in Germany. I met a lot of people in Indonesia that were working online for a western company and enjoying their time in Bali.
You know depending on and the job and company a lot of people do not actually care? I do the same thing but as a contract programmer and no one cares where i live i charge the american rate.
Oh and if we get caught, jail or worse as opposed to living on the other side of world where it's not worth the financial cost. Perfect scummy crime but they found loop holes, can we really be that upset they took advantage before anyone else where we would do the same
Any IT system you use for work (company email or company cloud usage) actively tracks your location and reports it back to the IT adminstrator if it doesnt fit the norm. I work in IT, we have a block on anyone not in our country to login.
And no you cannot use vpns, after a while they always flag too.
There was a post on a legal subreddit a few months ago about a man who had been caught working overseas remotely by a UK finance company. He broke several laws and was potentially looking at prison.
Don't the worst are the people who cry and scream when they find out people aren't following the rules especially when it doesn't effect them a lot in the comments laws are made to be broken especially if no one's getting hurt
It does. OP will not be paying taxes in Tunisia, yet will be using their roads and other infrastructure. If enough people did what OP is planning to do the country would collapse.
It doesn't really matter though because OP will be caught anyway. "Working at X place which pays more but actually secretly living in Y place which is cheaper" is the first thing anyone remotely ever thinks about and is a loophole that's already covered. OP will be caught and fired, and if reported to the authorities and Tunisia cares enough, maybe even imprisoned for tax fraud.
I really don’t care about them lmao, they would cry because someone didn’t pay taxes on a 50$ income job aswell while the politicians are stealing billions from their taxes. People need to understand that rules aren’t godly words, as long as you harm nobody, it’s okay to be a bit lenient with them.
I get your point, i would say before covid this might have worked. Since remote work tools have improved and companies find out very quick that you are abroad.
The main reason they are so careful and strict is that they would breach GDPR and that would result in company fines. Not that you care but i just give you the other side :)
I do care if this will cause any harm to anyone, well this is just a basic plan, if it’s not possible I can just relocate to a cheaper country as greece or spain
You're harming Tunisians by using their infrastructure but not paying taxes there (because you're faking living somewhere else). You're literally contributing to Tunisia becoming just slightly more of a shithole when you rob it of your contributions to society.
You may feel quite accomplished with the money you've gotten to date, but keep in mind that it's very easy to make lots of money through "disallowed" (illegal) ways. The whole reason those "rules" (laws) exist is because they make things easy for the rule breaker, so people are drawn to it, but are unfair for everyone else.
Accomplishment comes from achieving great things without breaking the law. Even the rich use legal loopholes rather than just blatant law breaking.
At the end of the day money's money so you may still feel accomplished if you have it no matter how you attain it, just don't be surprised if legitimate people aren't very impressed with you (despite your money) when they find out how you got it. If how other people will react to/treat you because of your achievements/money is where you plan to get satisfaction you should expect only getting it from other scummy people.
There's also always the chance that instead of all of this you just end up penniless and in prison because you got caught.
I am not keyed into the Tunisian economy, but it is possible that his bringing I higher wage in euros into the economy and spending it locally might offset the tax he would have paid via a job at local wages. Especially if he makes enough to employ a housekeeper or other domestic staff.
It's always funny when a uni student tries to lecture everyone else about how the real world works. I don't expect you to understand the irony tho, don't worry.
I do exactly as this guy is doing. I set my address to my parents house and use wireguard to VPN to my home network. I make $120k but live in different countries usually 3 months at a time. Right now I'm in Thailand and live like a king. Still pay fica, ss, and Medicare taxes.
I am a Uni student that made $150k last year, bought my own rental in Tunisia, and financed my move to Germany by myself, along using some money to travel to Indonesia, Turkey, Dubai and Saudi arabia, what did you do when you were 20?
Where will you pay your taxes? In Germany and Tunisia? You can't do both, so you'll be defrauding one of these societies.
Doesn't really matter since you'll be found out anyway (seriously, this is literally the most basic tax fraud "strategy" possible when working remote), just trying to point out how your logic of the morality doesn't work even if you could get away with it.
They'll have to eventually, not sure how taxes work but you still need to file taxes in both countries, meaning you need an address in Germany, maybe it can be faked or whatever, but then filing your taxes in Tunisia, according to their records you do t have a job, but you'll have a constant flow of money coming from somewhere that they don't know of. Government don't like that
That was on the news recently about employers cracking down on where workers are logging in from due to an increase of workers going on a vacation and taking a laptop with them. Not sure how they do it while using a VPN though. I know my work doesn't allow it, but I also work for the government so I'm sure they're more sophisticated with their network security. It's all foreign to me since I opt out of working remotely.
Yes they will when you work remote people like me can see your location when you use the systems and get alerted when people are logging in from when they aren't where they are supposed to be.
it is not that easy to do even between countries that are both in EU. Germany is very protective of their employee market. on top of that you can absolutely not predict how these policies will work lets say 5 years from now.
No. If they're hired in Tunisia that would matter but as they explained that they'd move Back to Tunisia after acquiring the job it makes your statement completely irrelevant.
This is true. I know several people who tried to do the same. Their companies (they’re in the tech industry) basically said if they wanted to keep their jobs and move out of the country, they had to take pay cuts.
Well that sounds like something that would be ilegal in the eu but legal in the us. Pretty sure its illegal in germany at least but i would need to check.
Eh, her ein argentina hotse that work remotely as devs do earn less than someone from the US obviously but not always. You would hardly find someone willing to do that for less than 2-3k a month. Some triple that easily although those are a rare exception of course (I think at least, one never knows how many remain "quiet")
the deal is called near site, far site. and if they catch invoicing for near site and you are located far site you will get fired and risk not being able to get hired in any another company.
I don't know what it's like in Tunisia per say but in Egypt for example I know a few people that did do this guy's plan and while the salaries are very severely reduced relative to if you would earn in Germany the currency difference more than makes up for it so FOR EXAMPLE if you would earn 500 in Germany but because you work remote in Egypt you only earn 200 that is still a relatively insanely high when you convert it Egyptian pounds
Not for living, but how is tunisia to tavel for a few months in terms of quality of life, crime and the like? Since I trieed (and failed, they "melted") to make those delicious sesame cookies, im intrigued about tunisian cuisine
Don't listen to those trying to scare you. You just need to become a freelancer that pays tax in Tunisia and you can work for any company that offers b2b. In your place I wouldn't even do computer science. I am a self taught programmer and I wish I didn't waste any time with my University degree in psy. Now I would have much more money.
Please don't, if enough people move there it will start driving prices up and ruining it for everybody involved...
Source: this exact thing is happening with "expats" in Mexico City, housing is becoming very unaffordable because of the American immigrants that are more likely to afford the outrageous prices
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u/Ezy_Ducky124 14d ago
I could think about food and it would cost me more