Telecommuting from Japan to California - Is it possible?

clambake asks: "Well, the long and short of it is I'll be moving to Japan next month as my wife is returning to finish her Master's degree in Tokyo. I have an excellent job now in Silicon Valley, and I'd love to keep working here from abroad, but it looks like California lawmakers have it out for me. Despite my company's willingness to keep me on, the labor laws make it very difficult, if not impossible, to do so when I don't physically work in the country. I can't work as a contractor for my own company either, as there are laws in place to 'protect' me from my employer trying to demote me to contractor to save on paying benefits. Is there anyone out there who's been through a similar situation and who would be willing to post their success or failure stories?"

Comments

All together now:

[Elwood P Dowd]

TALK TO A LAWYER.

Talk to a lawyer? Talk to a lawyer!

Perhaps, if you haven't considered consulting with a lawyer, you may wish to talk to a lawyer. Alternatively, if you have some kind of problem with lawyers, you should talk to a lawyer.

Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer. Talk to a lawyer.

Someone needs to make a song about this.

Set up a PO Box or similar

[Hungus]

You are going to be gone for how long? If its less than 3 years then move your official residence to a friends house or a P.O. Box. So long as you pay your taxes in the US and deal with whatever taxes you will have to pay in .jp nobody will care. Now you will get double taxed because of this and you should set up direct deposit if you haven't but thats pretty much it. Note: This was legal when we did it back in 1988-1990 Laws may have changed, but I doubt it.

Re:Set up a PO Box or similar

[Zachary Kessin]

IANAL (or tax expert) but I am an american who has lived outside the US, (UK, and as of next week Israel) And if you are living outside the USA you still have to file a tax return but you get a major tax discount, (the first $70,000 or so is tax free). Even if you are being paid by an american company in american dollars via an american bank. If you look at the IRS web site www.irs.gov you will find some very helpfull information.

Good Luck to you and have a safe trip!

what they don't know won't hurt them

[jfruhlinger]

I worked for 8 months from Germany, but my legal address was a Mailboxes Etc. box in Berkeley, CA. This is a better option than a US PO Box because your address will look "real" -- mine was "1536 Solano Ave. #248" -- 1536 Solano Ave. being the location of the Mailboxes Etc. and 248 being the box number. I set the box up near a friend of mine who agreed to collect my checks, deposit them by mail, and forward the interesting stuff to me, but Mailboxes Etc. will be happy to forward everything to your overseas address once a week or whatever for a fee.

In short, I had a legal address in CA and no one asked any questions. Since I am a freelancer and work from home anyway, the administrative end of the comanies I worked with didn't know the difference -- to them, it just looked like I had moved somewhere else in CA -- and the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board didn't care either.

From other posts you've made responding to similar suggestions, it sounds like your comany lawyers are a little uncomfortable with the idea, and they will obviously have the final say. But really, I think if you find a friend with a CA address who is willing to say that you live with him or her, and who will do little things like put your name on their mailbox, I don't think anyone can touch you. Pay a nominal fee to your friend for rent. Make sure you come back to CA several times a year, and be sure to stay at "your" home when you do. Register to vote at your new address, and do so, by absentee ballot if necessary. Get everything in Japan in your wife's name. It seems to me that if you do all this it would take a determined effort to prove you're doing something illegal.

jf

Is this so different from a business trip?

[polymath69]

supposedly it actually matter where you physically do the work, not where you live.

My old company used to send me all over on business -- to India, Brazil, and other places, for extended stays, yet never had any trouble with simply continuing my pay and benefits as usual. Granted that I'm not in California, but surely Californians face the same situation all the time? I've never run into anyone who stopped getting paid over a business trip.

You're going over, and you're going to do business, right? So it could be a business trip of unusual duration.

How about if your company doesn't hire you?

[Wavicle]

Move to japan and incorporate a business there where you are the only employee. Have the california company contract out to the company in Japan. Now they aren't paying you, they're paying your company who is paying you.

No, I don't know if it is practical for a resident alien to incorporate a business in Japan... Just an idea (you should talk to a Japanese lawyer).

Dammit!

[Glonoinha]

Man this was my advice, I just needed to read this thread from top to bottom to see if it wasn't already said.

Don't ask, don't tell. Just go. Have a friend's address become your address for a year and send all your mail there. Pay your friend in beer, cash or goodwill to have him do it for you, don't just assume he will.

You are not going to get the $70,000 tax exemption for working out of the country and you will still have to pay California income taxes, but if it is important to you, you will do it.

Another way to do it is to move to Texas first and telecommute from there for a month or two, then move overseas. This will accomplish two things : prove to yourself and to your company that it can work, and quite honestly Texas could give a fsck if some California transplant wants to move to Japan and work for his company from there.