Is anyone here paid in $USD while based in the UK? There’s a possibility of a new position* for yours truly which might be paid in dollars. US based operation, with v little presence outside the ewe ess of ay.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this sort of thing.

*Go long on staplers, that’s all I’m saying.

I’ve done one contract for a US company. It was their first contract outside US. I cannot remember whether they ended up paying in dollars or GBP. I think the contract was in GBP. Generally speaking in this country you can charge GBP anyway.

Two things to be aware of: contract negotiation might take a lot longer than in UK. They have a lot more legal stuff. 2) currancy fluctuations. changes over here can hit them hard. Worth checking what happens here in the T&C’s.

They paid up straight away. UK VAT did seem to confuse them though. From my limited experience Americans play with a straight bat and a easy to deal with. Not like the blasted Dutch…never do business with the Dutch.

I was just listening to ‘paid in full’ today! The Ofra Haza sample is brilliant, still sounds good.

Do check the tax situation. The US inland revenue types disregard the inland bit. As a non-US citizen I think you’re ok, but check.

My brother works in the oil industry and has a job where he changes location every 3yrs or so. He’s paid in USD but can elect to have a proportion of his salary paid in whatever local currency of the country he’s located in. It has its problems. Despite being located anywhere in the world he still see’s his ‘base’ or ‘home’ as the UK so he’s forever comparing his income to the equivalent in £, so he complains about an x% pay cut whenever the exchange rate moves against him. I have little sympathy for him as he earns an absolute fortune, but I guess everything is relative. I’d have thought that, unless its a very good salary, being paid in USD and living in the UK can’t be a particularly desirable situation, especially if the £ is strengthening against the $ (which I think it is at the moment), you’re effectively getting a pay cut.

I work for a smallish US company. They just farm out payroll to a UK based company that deal with everything, so to me it just looks like I work for a UK based company. My salary was agreed in sterling, so I think the company I work for are just told how much money to transfer each month to cover tax and NI and what I’m paid.

I don’t know if it’s common in the US, but the company I work for (c. 80 employees) are keen on farming out payroll / expenses / non core admin type stuff to third parties, and generally, it seems to work OK.

Wobbli, it was the currency fluctuations that worried me as a potential issue here.

Lodious, am hoping to get the same sort of thing arranged, but something about the contract discussion so far makes me worry a bit. Wanted to be prepared!

Excellent feedback, all. Thanks as ever to the STWHiveMind.

I did this a year or so ago. Had to fill in something like an W-8BEN form – which seems to instruct the US company to hang fire from messing up the tax side of things. Funds can then be paid directly via cheque (expect to wait 8 weeks or more) or transfer. Alternative is to use a US bank for holding.

hehe, the contract will be the least of your worries…wait till you start work 😉

Lodious, I’ve worked with ‘merkins before, so am very much aware of their special way of doing things! 😀

Hi. I run a UK-US company and could have been paid through the US entity or the UK entity. It is much easier to be paid in £ (and I’m doing better with the current £ vs $) and sub out to a payroll company. Unbelievably HMRC are much easier to deal with than the IRS. The only positive for being paid in the US (depending on state) you might pay less tax.

Unliek wobbliscotts bro If your spending pounds then remember the exchange rate does effect you .

I have mates who have taken quite the pay cut recently because of this , based in baku but paid our of corporate in the us – living in the uk.

They aint happy .

Just been chatting to a friend in the US. He was telling me about people calling him at 5am. When I said that was crazy he started saying “Sure, for half the year I work 5-9 (meaning 5am-9pm) but the rest of it I only work 9-5.” I was expecting him to come out with 10-3 or something.. I would not consider 9-5 to be my payback for working basically every waking hour half the year 😯

Good luck with it CFH, hope it works out.

Staplers? Damn I’ve bet the farm on paperclips.

Don’t forget you need a UK holiday allowance!

Only partially and then three currencies! FX costs – poss transaction costs to convert to £ unless co does it for you and FX volatility are main concerns. It amused us last time that you chose between converting at year end and average exchange rate and head of markets and CEO both got that wrong.

You can live with FX vol to an extent but PIA if you have to incur costs of moving $ into £. Company should do that for you to get better rate.

Worse in France where the banks used to charge me to receive my salary. That was crazy. Bonjour we will now charge you to accept your money. Merci.

Off to Office Depot!?!?

As above, sure it’ll be fine but you need to watch the exchange rate… (20% pay cut this year 😥 )

Also, it makes mortgages etc more of a PITA. Many companies require you to earn GBP and pay UK tax, which will rule out most of the best deals on the market.

More worrying flashy, you maybe end up wearing non-laced up shoes, even brown ones, button down collars and suits with a belt……ghastly. 😉

The only positive for being paid in the US (depending on state) you might pay less tax.

you’re mixing up two different things: currency and tax residency.

where I work the senior management are paid in USD. oh, how we laugh when the USD goes lower than the local currency (we don’t really say much when it goes the other way).

You may want try to agree that they take currency risk. Work out what the salary in USD is worth to you in GBP. Agree the rate of conversion. This means they’ll take the downside risk, so you don’t need to worry about rate fluctuations…but be aware that it will also mean they get the upside (unless you have Hollywood style negotiation skills).

I’ve done it in a similar way in the past, where we set up a England and Wales registered entity, seconded me into that, fed in the USD element into the NewCo and then paid out the wages from there in GBP. Easier if you can just agree a rate though.

THM, standards dear boy, standards!

Sandwich, sorry about that.

Thanks for the thoughts here, one and all.

Give it 6 months and CFH will look like this:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7yAWpX1Mc[/video]

Apparently the guy used to be English and work in post-it notes, then he moved to the US….