Singapore Expats

Remote job from abroad

Discuss about getting a well paid job or career advancement. Ask about salaries, expat packages, CPF & taxes for expatriate.
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maybenewexpat
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Remote job from abroad

Post by maybenewexpat » Mon, 01 Feb 2016 5:26 am

Hello,

I would like to ask you about remote jobs in Singapore. I want to live in Cambodia and work remotely in Singapore, as software engineer. Are companies likely to make remote work possible (provided I have university degree, various certificates and several years of professional experience, including the UK)? What are the laws governing double taxation avoidance (in order not to pay taxes in two countries)?

Thank you!

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PNGMK
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Re: Remote job from abroad

Post by PNGMK » Mon, 01 Feb 2016 8:52 am

If you want to live in Cambodia and work remotely what does Singapore have to do with it? I'd have thought you'd take work from anywhere (via freelancing websites etc). Singapore has a limited number of dual taxation agreements but if you're making serious coin you'd probably be better off with an offshore entity. I have no idea about Cambodia's tax laws.
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maybenewexpat
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Re: Remote job from abroad

Post by maybenewexpat » Mon, 01 Feb 2016 9:02 am

It has two simple things to do, i.e. Singapore one of the best developed countries in the region (so I could expect working on good products, with state of the art technologies, for satisfactory salaries) and these two countries have very similar time zones.

Working in the USA while living in time zone shifted by about 12 hours wouldn't make it easy to contact other people in real time (other than working at night). Similar for working for e.g. British company (about 6 hours of time zone difference).

I know some companies prefer working around the clock but I think that everyday real time interactions with other team members are important at work to make sure that final product is good. Even those companies that work around the clock, have teams in the given places, not single people that have nobody to talk with in real time.

One other thing it has to do with is whether there exists any double taxation treaty agreement between the countries.

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JR8
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Re: Remote job from abroad

Post by JR8 » Mon, 01 Feb 2016 6:42 pm

maybenewexpat wrote:Working in the USA while living in time zone shifted by about 12 hours wouldn't make it easy to contact other people in real time (other than working at night). Similar for working for e.g. British company (about 6 hours of time zone difference).
I don't know to what extent this is the insurmountable challenge you see it as. For example think of the EU/US subsidiaries in Asia and how they interface vs their head offices. For example when I worked in Tokyo we'd interface vs NYC in the early morning, deal with local matters during the day, then 'hand-off' to London on the close/their open. There wasn't 24hr staffing at any location and via the above there didn't need to be. It was more a case of having say a one hour window in the morning to set the direction, and another to close things out (end of day), and around and around the world and the clock it went.
There were a few times I'd have NYC on the phone at home in the small hours but only if there was some major reconciliation break.
So I suppose a question is how much do you require ongoing open channels during the day? How critical is that to your end-of-day productivity?
maybenewexpat wrote:I know some companies prefer working around the clock but I think that everyday real time interactions with other team members are important at work to make sure that final product is good. Even those companies that work around the clock, have teams in the given places, not single people that have nobody to talk with in real time.
I wonder how much of the 24/7 is used because it's necessary, vs it's simply there.
maybenewexpat wrote:One other thing it has to do with is whether there exists any double taxation treaty agreement between the countries.
IME you can answer such a question pretty simply by Googling it. I.e it's simple 'headline' info to find, either on the relevant Revenue website, and/or as press releases - not something buried deeeep in some obscure tax manual.

ps. Welcome to the forum! :)
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Strong Eagle
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Re: Remote job from abroad

Post by Strong Eagle » Mon, 01 Feb 2016 11:33 pm

maybenewexpat wrote:Hello,

I would like to ask you about remote jobs in Singapore. I want to live in Cambodia and work remotely in Singapore, as software engineer. Are companies likely to make remote work possible (provided I have university degree, various certificates and several years of professional experience, including the UK)? What are the laws governing double taxation avoidance (in order not to pay taxes in two countries)?

Thank you!
Generally, a Singapore registered company that hires an offshore person or company to perform a specific task, simply pays the person/company and takes the amount as an expense. This is true so long as no work is performed in Singapore. So, let's say you got a year long contract at $5000 per month. You stay in Cambodia for 11 months but come to Singapore for 1 month to meet with your employers, etc. Your employer would be required to withhold 15 percent of that 1 month's salary since you are a non-resident performing work in Singapore.

Your bigger problem, though, is that it is difficult to find work as a single programmer. Typically, someone in the company does the business logic and system design, then the whole project is awarded to a group of programmers... quite often in India... but also South America, Philippines, and elsewhere. You would need to be able to demonstrate enough resources to get the project done, and, the killer, you don't have the track record and references to make the short list of vendors.

I will PM you with the contact information of a couple of Vietnamese guys I know who have been running a very successful software house. Perhaps they can provide you with more insights or opportunities. I judge that Singapore is a very tough nut to crack for many reasons.

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