I am currently an Australian PR and will be getting my citizenship later this year. My current employer allows me to work overseas for up to 3 months at a time which is great but I would like to work from Malaysia permanently if possible. It's very early days but my intention is to move back to Malaysia when I get citizenship here in Australia and work remotely for either an Australian company or some other overseas organisation. I work in a field where there is reasonable demand for my services and I can get work quite easily here for around AUD150k to 200k p.a. but if I move back to Malaysia and work in a similar role I think my earning capacity will be around RM120k to RM180k only. This is why I want to take advantage of possibly working for an Australian or other overseas entity from Malaysia on a remote working arrangement (I'd happily take a 10/20% discount on the salary if it means I can work from Malaysia on a permanent basis).
The purpose of me starting this thread is to understand if anyone is on a similar work arrangement? If you have experience in this area, can you please help me with the following queries:
1. What are the type of companies who would hire on this basis? Per my understanding and discussion with tax personnel at my current place of work, for Australian companies there is a risk that that allowing an employee to work overseas creates what they referred to as a 'permanent establishment' overseas and this results in complex tax implications which is why they avoid it. Are US based regulations more accommodating of these type of work arrangements? If not the US, where else should I be potentially focusing my attention i.e. which countries have the most relaxed remote working laws?
2. Is it better to set up a local company and invoice the hiring the company as a consultant? This would obviously mean I don't get annual leave, long service leave and other employment benefits but from a local tax perspective would it be favourable?
3. If it ends up being contract work - would you recommend getting an agent? If you have a good one operating in the finance space can you please PM me information (if not possible - no worries)?
Thanks - any input at all would be greatly appreciated.
Working remotely from Malaysia