Working Remotely While Traveling

[Drea]

I'm and argentinean-born US Citizen who is looking to work remotely in Argentina no more than 2 months at a time and no more than 180 days/yr. to be close to my aging mom. I want to do this so I don't eat up all my vacation time there. My bosses all agree I can work remotely, as many of our employees do. However, HR wants to make sure that the company will not be fined for having me working from there. I see it as "working while traveling" instead of "working remotely". For example, if I were to log in while at a week-long conference in Argentina, there would be no issues. My question is, if I can work there a week while traveling, how about 3 weeks? How about a month? Is there a cut off to were someone in Argentina would raise their eyebrows, or where the company has to consider tax laws or agreements between both countries?
The company has no clients outside of the US.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Hi.

You should fact-check anything I tell you because I'm only an amateur but I'll have a go at unpicking the problem. Also I might have made some incorrect assumptions about what you actually want to do.

First, given what you've just said, none of this has any bearing on your employer. If there is any liability it will be yours, not theirs so they can rest easy.

Next, whoever your parents are, if you were born in Argentina you have the same rights as any other Argentine citizen though if you don't have the documents already, you may have to do a certain amount of form-filling to keep everybody happy in this respect eg. you ought to enter and leave the country on an Argentine passport. That aside, you may come and go as you want to, work when you want to, where you want to, stay as long as you like or live in Argentina all the year round if you want to.

One way of parsing your question suggests to me that you might be wanting to stay in total for longer than half of each year with your mum but only work here for smaller parts of that time. If you live in Argentina for more than half the year, they consider that Argentina is where you live and you may become liable to pay tax in Argentina regardless of where the money was earned or how many days you may have spent earning it.

If you haven't already read what AFIP writes about personal taxation on their website you probably ought to and if you need further explanation or help in minimising your liabilities, consult a tax specialist. Some "foreigners" live for extended periods in Argentina and try to fly under the radar as far as liability for tax is concerned. As you are an Argentine citizen that approach may have fewer or greater consequences for you: I don't know. If in doubt, ask for legal advice.

 

[Drea]

Thank you, the main piece of information I was looking for was the impact, if any, to my employer. I will look into the taxation issues I may have with AFIP. Mil gracias!