Paying freelancers outside the EU

Co-ops
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Does anyone know any of the rules about paying freelances who live in and are citizens of countries outside of the EU?

We’re speaking to some financial advisors about it soon but I imagine some of you folks have come across this already,

There’s two parts to this question…

What are any important rules regarding doing this?

Is there much beyond the usual paper trail, accounting, bookkeeping etc?

What the best way to reduce fees?

There’s bank transfers, TransferWise, PayPal, Western Union and they each have their cost. It’s proving to be a bit of a nightmare as may of them don’t allow business to individual payments in the countries where our workers are. Any tips?

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I’ve paid (and am paid) via transferwise quite a bit and usually find it to have the best rates. Unfortunately getting money into certain local currencies can be a pretty huge pain (I’ve experienced this when working in Jordan) and it’s often best for whoever is in country to open proxy accounts for accepting payments in generally accepted currencies in my experience.

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I upvote TransferWise too, excellent platform.

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Could you just use a personal Transferwise account and then reclaim as an expense?

I agree Transferwise tends to be the best in terms of fees and speed (but think I’ve only used it for EU countries and Canada so far).

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Yep we are legally in London but use TW to collect and distribute. Such a good service.

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