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Best way to create a company as web dev freelancer to work with French companies


by @faby 5yr  | 4 comments

Iโ€™m French and Iโ€™m leaving Paris and my current full time job. In a few month, Iโ€™ll move to Bali to be a fresh digital nomad in web development. I learn about the different possibilities to create my own business and I would have feedbacks. whatโ€™s the best ? Iโ€™ve an opportunity to work with my actual french company as a freelancer, remotly, on specific missions.
But I donโ€™t know If I have to create my company in France to continue working with them or maybe one in Singapour like with sleek.sg. I donโ€™t know if itโ€™s it easy to work with a french company with a singapore company. I then plan to find other missions with fewer time differences, (Australia โ€ฆ)

If someone could help me :slight_smile: thanks!

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@seifip 5yr

If youโ€™re a web dev, invoice clients directly, and donโ€™t need a payment gateway such as Stripe, take a look at Georgia.

Setting up a Virtual Zone Limited company is quite cheap and straightforward (but requires a trip to Tbilisi), and youโ€™ll pay 0% VAT & corporate taxes on all IT-related foreign sourced income.

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@toob 5yr

Iโ€™d recommend taking a look at the Estonian eResidency program. It allows you to run your company with minimal costs (about 80 EUR per month, depending on your needs) from anywhere in the world. This is relatively unique because Estoniaโ€™s program is made for people like us, where in other countries itโ€™s sometimes impossible or at least inconvenient to run a company without renting an office or being a resident.

Companies like LeapIN offer good service to help you get started with an Estonian Oรœ company.

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I would suggest to look at Estonia. The largest benefit is low-cost setup and easy online management after incorporation.

You would also need local accountant and โ€œlegalโ€ contact person, but compared to accountants fees in UK these would be โ€œpeanutsโ€.

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Hi!

Iโ€™d suggest creating LTD in Britain. This is what I do since 2014 and you can work with any company from any country. Of course there is also the local accountant within each company, that can have a problem with filling invoices from your new venture.

Ask your current client first, how they see it. If itโ€™s fine, then proceed.

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Read and participate in 14,117 discussions on Nomad List

Suggested topics

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What are some nice French beach towns?


in France by @amin 4yr 4 years ago  | 4 comments

I'm thinking to head over to France during the winter and I'm looking for recommendations on a good French town that has beach and is warm enough during the winter.

What are your favourites? Any recommendation is appreciated.

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Are there comparable companies like Iglu in Thailand?


in Thailand by @stiensf 5yr 5 years ago  | 2 comments

You can look up the Iglu company in Thailand. It is a legal way of working in Thailand with a work permit for digital nomads. Are there other companies in Thailand offering work permits for digital nomads? They charge you 30% of your salary, which is a lot. Are there other companies charging less than Iglu or have a different pricing scheme?

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What kind of work do digital nomad web developers do?


by @cryberg 7yr 7 years ago  | 8 comments

Hi everyone! Iโ€™m thinking of making the jump from being an office-bound web developer to freelancing instead. I was hoping to talk to some of you who do freelance web dev while living a nomadic lifestyle.

Iโ€™m at a bit of a loss, because when Iโ€™ve tried looking for posts about this kind of lifestyle, the majority of what Iโ€™ve found is for web designers or Wordpress developers, which are both pretty different from being a developer who likes to work with React or whatever other framework.

So for those of you who are living my dream right now:
Are you usually building Wordpress sites, or more often using a framework like React or Ruby on Rails? Or something else entirely?

What types of contracts do you take on? Ecommerce? Building blogs?
Are they on-going, or one-off projects?

How do you get clients while on the road? Is it mostly Upwork or word of mouth?

I have a ton of questions, and would greatly appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thank you!

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Any nomads working for the big 5 tech companies?


by @andrewkennedy 7yr 7 years ago  | 13 comments

I currently work at one of the big 5 tech companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon), at the main campus as a software engineer. I was wondering if any nomads work remotely for said companies and how you came to that arrangement. Working for myself or moving to a smaller company that has mostly remote work seems less desirable than maintaining access to all the resources I have internal to my company.

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Which residence/company location is beneficial for an Italian freelancer


by @saschamayr 7yr 7 years ago  | 6 comments

I am an Italian citizen currently living in Italy. I am starting to work as a freelancer and want to open a company in order to invoice the client.
Besides that, I also want to move my main residence away from Italy for multiple reasons.
In which countries should I place my company and/or residence so that the combination of both would be beneficial for me (cost and taxwise)?
Goal would be to rent an apartment and actually move (preferably in Europe), and from there travel as a digital nomad.
Has anyone been in a similar situation or knows an answer to this?

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Is a 4G sim device in addition to phone advisable in SE Asia?


by @anderkd 7yr 7 years ago  | 4 comments

Iโ€™m planning a visit to Chiang Mai and Bali starting in April. I have a Google Nexus which has worked flawlessly in Mexico at least. Assuming it will work just as well in CM and Bali? If I decide not to work in a coworking space, but rather Airbnb w/wifi and/or Coffee shops wifi, would a dedicated 4g sim card device be worth spening $75 USD to purchase, plus local sim, plus potential SIM hassle, or just rely on Nexus hotspot + airbnb and coffee shop Wifi?

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Hotel Tracking Website


by @yl_ksa 7yr 7 years ago  | 3 comments

I was wondering if anyone knows a website to keep track of the hotels I have stayed in, I really like to keep track of everything. I have a couple of websites to track each flight I took and was wanted to see if there is something similar but for hotels.

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Is there a website for Career Counselling for Digital Nomads


by @abhidmallik 7yr 7 years ago  | 0 comments

For digital nomads, there are few specific platforms for specific info like-
Finances and Investments - NomadCapitalist
Dating - Nomad Soulmates
Travel - Digital nomad travel mag

I am a budding digital nomad and looking forward to going completely online and serve as a digital marketer. Is there a site dedicated to career counselling of nomads? i.e. which offers guidance on selection of online courses followed by awareness on various remote job sites and freelancing platforms.

Kindly advise!

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Tax: what are the best options for a nomadic Dutch freelancer?


by @maarten 7yr 7 years ago  | 11 comments

Originally, I am from the Netherlands. Since january 2016, I have been working remotely all around the world. But even though I havenโ€™t been in the Netherlands this year, I am still paying taxes there. Iโ€™m still registered as a citizen.

I have to unregister in the Netherlands as a citizen. But if I donโ€™t register somewhere else, or have a freelance status or company somewhere else, I would still have to pay 50%+ taxes. This is, of course, not fun at all.

So I decided to move my business elsewhere. Either get freelancer status in another country, or create a business there to send invoices from. Which brings me to my question:

What is the best country tax-wise for a Dutch freelancer?

As of now, I found two solutions:

  • Have an agency set up a company in Bulgaria. It will kost 3000 euro a year, once 3300 euros and extra money if I want residency. And then of course 10% income tax on my earnings.
  • Have an agency set up a company in Dubai. It will cost around 2000 euro annually and 5000 euro once. No income tax.

Wether residency in an other country is required for the Dutch tax authority to not tax your world income, seems to be a grey area. However, if I unregister in Holland and send invoices from a company in a whole other country, it should be fine.

I have little or no experience. People with know-how: would you be so kind to comment on these options?

Are there alternatives I should consider?

I donโ€™t really like to hire an agency. Iโ€™d rather just fly to a country, fill out paperwork, incorporate there and from then on invoice from that company. If itโ€™s too bureaucratic, I wouldnโ€™t mind hiring a local lawyer or accountant to do it for me.

Do you know a country where there is no or a low income tax and this process is relatively easy and suitable for Dutch freelancers?

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Ko Samui, Ko Lanta, Goa or Chennai. Which one to start developing apps?


in Ko Samui , Thailand by @lordcyberspacer 8yr 8 years ago  | 10 comments

Hi nomads!

Iโ€™m intending to become a proper digital nomad in January at the latest, and I am just starting to take some initial steps. I am a software developer and I intend to create an app and build a startup. Which one of these places would be best for that?

  • Ko Samui (Thailand)
  • Ko Lanta (Thailand)
  • Goa (India)
  • Chennai (India)

My idea is to develop my business in any of those places and open it here in Australia later on. Obviously, one of the main reasons why I have picked those places is that they are very affordable so that I can make the most of my savings from my current contract :slight_smile: Goa would probably be my favourite pick since is quieter and not as crowded as Chennai (I think), plus living costs are about half of what they are in Ko Samui and Ko Lanta.

However, due to the nature of my business plan, Internet is a must. I have read your article about Goa and you said that Internet access is pretty bad, however I noticed that you wrote that a year ago and I also heard that this is currently changing. Whatโ€™s the situation right now?

Cheers!

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Starting a SaaS website with paid service -- Best practices for setting up payment collection? (from US)


by @dedalux 8yr 8 years ago  | 4 comments

Over the past few months I started doing javascript development work and Iโ€™m trying to build projects for my portfolio. Iโ€™m working on a productivity tool that would have a paid tier for users and Iโ€™m not sure about the best practices for setting up this up for myself in terms of tax efficiency and ways to incorporate.

Right now itโ€™s only me who works on this and I project a modest user base in the beginning with perhaps a few hundred dollars of revenues that I would like to expand ideally. Iโ€™m looking at services like Stripe which has an option for individuals without the need for incorporation.

Meanwhile Iโ€™d like to reach to a point where I can hire some people to develop with me and run operations if thereโ€™s more steady cash flow coming in. Fundraising is also of course an option on the table. I donโ€™t foresee a lot of potential for legal liabilities with this project but Iโ€™d like to be personally protected. Iโ€™d Hence I think incorporation is inevitable down the road.

Iโ€™m not sure if I should incorporate as early as possible, since there is some costs associated with this. But if I were to do this, with US status, I am wondering what should I be looking for to ensure that I can run this well in the long run. If any nomads have had experience with the business side of a personal start-up project Iโ€™d love to hear your opinion and experiences.

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Schengen tourist visa - legal to work for home companies?

 

by @lefnire 8yr 8 years ago  | 33 comments

So I know itโ€™s illegal to work in Europe for European companies without a work visa / permit. Iโ€™m also aware of the Germany freelancer visa, which lets you work in Germany legally for 3 years (but Iโ€™m not stationing in Germany; I want to hop hop hop). I see many digital nomads programming on the road, making income from American companies on a Schengen tourist visa. Of course this seems fine, since itโ€™s brining American dollars into Europe. But is it legal? Has anyone had experiences / conversations with immigration, or seen this discussed anywhere online? My Google fu fails me here.

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What are the best places to meet other web entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur and Penang?


in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia by @yliasm 8yr 8 years ago  | 0 comments

Hi everyone,
Iโ€™ll be in Malaysia from mid-July onwards and would love to meet other web entrepreneurs. Iโ€™ll be roaming in the country for a month but will probably stay a bit in KL and Penang. According to your experience, what are the best places to meet web entrepreneurs in these two cities?
Iโ€™m particularly looking for web entrepreneurs but if you have suggestions to meet any other entrepreneurs, Iโ€™ll be glad to read it :slight_smile:
Thanks for all your answers,
Cheers!
HW.

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What options are available for a pension plan for remote EU citizens, not registered as freelancers?


by @akisl 8yr 8 years ago  | 11 comments

Hi people,

Iโ€™m Greek, Iโ€™m now transitioning to fully remote. I think I have solved the first part: Creating a remote legal entity, a business bank account and having health insurance but I donโ€™t know how to solve the pension issue.

As an EU citizen, either your employer contributes X% of your gross salary to the national/private pension funds, or if you are a freelancer you pay the equivalent to the freelancer pension fund of your country, which in many cases is also attached to the national insurance fund.

So as a fully remote person, not registered as an employee or freelancer in any EU country, only having an EU company for invoicing and money transfers, where and how do you contribute to a pension fund for you? And what fund would that be?

Iโ€™m talking about a core pension fund, similar to the one that you would have if you were registered as an employee or freelancer in your country. Not ancillary pension funds offered by insurance companies, as these mostly focus on covering additional aspects that may not be covered by the core pension fund you have and they assume you already have a core pension fund.

Thank you so much for the help.

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Any nomad freelancers moving from Elance to Upwork?


by @eduardocruz 8yr 8 years ago  | 13 comments

I didnโ€™t become a nomad, but I joined Nomad Forum to understand more about it. I have been freelancing remotely thru Elance for the last two years so I would like to know if there are other who have been impacted by their merge with Odesk and migration to Upwork.com. Just curious to hear more about it.

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How do I become a Front-End developer in 6 months?


by @adsieg01 8yr 8 years ago  | 17 comments

Iโ€™m an aspiring DN and my best chances for getting a job are to continue developing my Front-End skills until I can get a steady stream of income. Iโ€™ve never been hired for this kind of work. Before it was just a hobby but now Iโ€™m quite seriousโ€ฆany suggestions to go from 0 to employed in 6 months? Also I live in China.

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What's the best mobile hotspot device for international travel?


by @stefanlesser 8yr 8 years ago  | 7 comments

Browsing this forum a lot, I learned that the best option for mobile data is buying a local SIM card in pretty much every country I go to. Ok, thatโ€™s manageable.

Now I was wondering which mobile hotspot to buy, because I will have more devices with me that I want to connect to the Internet, and my girlfriend will have even more devices with her to connect, too.

When I was looking at just one manufacturerโ€™s offerings, Iโ€™m already overwhelmed by the complexity of options.

Should I just use my main mobile phoneโ€™s hotspot feature for this?
Should I get a separate mobile hotspot device for that? Which one? Any recommendations?
How do you do this?

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Best way to make money as a software developer?


by @grantlyk 8yr 8 years ago  | 3 comments

So as the title suggests, whatโ€™s the best way to make enough cash to support a lifestyle of coding on the move?

Iโ€™m currently a software developer that works for startups, but when it comes to coding iโ€™m quite happy to more or less code anything.

What iโ€™m mainly asking for is validation that someone currently has this lifestyle from coding and did they find that some ways of using it to make money were easier/had more benefits than others?

Thanks and any responses are welcome.

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Any coworking spaces in the French Riviera?


by @djh100 8yr 8 years ago  | 0 comments

Iโ€™ll be riding through France on my Trusty Triumph from May 2016 any good co spaces or nomad friendly cafes in Nice,Cannes,Antibes?

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Are you a remote employee, freelancer or entrepreneur?

 

by @vincentnguyen 8yr 8 years ago  | 29 comments

Thereโ€™s a pretty good mix of nomads here. Itโ€™d be interesting to see if thereโ€™s a significant difference in terms of amounts of people belonging to certain camps.

Some are remote employees working for a specific company, others are freelancers who are picking up gigs here and there to fuel their travels, and the others are location independent entrepreneurs who are building businesses (however you may define it).

Which camp do you belong to? Do you belong in multiple groups? What does your past look like and were their transition periods?

I myself started out in the first group and transitioned into the third.

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