Foreign Contractors

I have a client that is bringing on 89 foreign contractors in 33 different countries. My understanding is that all work will be done remotely in the foreign countries. I advised the client that it is imperative that they have in their files a signed W-8BEN for each foreign contractor.

I also advised the client to talk to an international employment law attorney to ensure that their independent contractor agreement is iron clad in terms of independent contractor versus employee status in each jurisdiction. Obviously the duties they have the contractor actually perform will need to be in line with the contract.

Are there any other tax reporting/filing requirements generated by using foreign contractors? Anything I'm missing here?

I can say that we have a client who uses computer type subcontractors in other countries all over the world and the question we were asked was about the subcontractor expense and the lack of 1099-misc. We decided that there was no need for 1099's for foreign subs who work remotely.

We decided that there was no need for 1099's for foreign subs who work remotely.

That’s great, but how do you know they’re foreign?

Hint: See Post #1.

When is withholding required on foreign contractors?

One instance is when you don't have a W-8BEN