USA remote contract UK ltd

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I did a search and found some useful info about insurance.

Is anyone currently doing this? (working for a US client in the UK) would love to compare war stories with an actual participant rather than "i think it's this.." which most of the threads found in the search were.

[WordIsBond]

Not much time for exchanging war stories, I'm busy working for US clients.

If your question is about insurance, I won't do a US contract under US law, they have to use my standard contract. That seemed to make QDOS happy when I asked them about PII. You might have difficulty buying PII if the contract is American law.

If you have specific questions I can try to get back and answer them.

[jamesbrown]

Yes, what do you want to know?

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Do you charge VAT (I am VAT reg but doubt the US client can reclaim VAT and I also doubt they are subject to it).
Do you invoice in Dollars or GBP
Are they decent payers?
Any top tips (thanks for the insurance one)?

[eek]

Do you charge VAT (I am VAT reg but doubt the US client can reclaim VAT and I also doubt they are subject to it).
Do you invoice in Dollars or GBP
Are they decent payers?
Any top tips (thanks for the insurance one)?

1) No you don't charge VAT as it's an export.
2) It will be dollars americans can't cope with anything else

3 and 4 I can't answer as I do software rather than consultancy (and I'm rapidly working on moving the american side of things to a separate US company).

[jamesbrown]

VAT is based on place of supply rules. You should check them. That said, if it’s a B2B supply and your customer is in the US, then it will be outside of the scope of UK VAT. Write that on the invoice.

I charge in both - whatever the client wants. I used to require GBP, but I don’t really care anymore as companies like TransferWise have made multi-currency payments effortless.

PII is doable with US federal/state law, but more expensive.

I’ve had more problems with European clients than NA clients, TBH, but that’s nothing more than an anecdote.

They may ask you to complete a W8-BEN-E, but don’t bother unless they do.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Thanks all - I have completed a W8-BEN-E in the past - when I was a permie in the UK working for a US company so it's not entirely unfamiliar.

[jamesbrown]

Thanks all - I have completed a W8-BEN-E in the past - when I was a permie in the UK working for a US company so it's not entirely unfamiliar.

That would’ve been a W8-BEN but, yeah, similar. You also complete one if you hold US stocks/shares. There’s no US withholding on a non-US source payment to a non-US person (jargon, but that probably includes your situation).

You won’t be able to do any consultancy in the US without a visa/GC/citizenship, but I hope for your sake you don’t have the latter.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

That would’ve been a W8-BEN but, yeah, similar. You also complete one if you hold US stocks/shares. There’s no US withholding on a non-US source payment to a non-US person (jargon, but that probably includes your situation).

You won’t be able to do any consultancy in the US without a visa/GC/citizenship, but I hope for your sake you don’t have the latter.

Not a US citizen and no requirement to travel for the gig - but thanks.

[jamesbrown]

Not a US citizen and no requirement to travel for the gig - but thanks.

Should be straightforward then. If you need PII for the US, try Randell Dorling, but it would be better to have UK jurisdiction with the governing law of England and Wales.