We will be very honest, the current situation inspired us to write more about remote working.
Before, it seemed to be a privilege of a small group of people or those from our environment: friends, clients, partners. But all of the sudden, this type of work became necessity for millions of people all over the world.
CDX SPIRIT
We are not going to repeat the great advises or talk about the “work from home” savoir-vivre. Many others already shared their experiences and helpful guidelines in the recent weeks. Of course, we cannot agree more with the fact that a nice, tidy desk far away from bed will make your work more efficient. And no, don’t believe the photos of relaxed digital nomads working from the beach… In real life it is not that easy as it looks on Instagram. Anyone who tried, knows what I am talking about.
Also, we are not the ones to give you travelling advices… Not because it is not possible at the moment. There is a pretty big nomads’ community out there, that already mastered the digital work with travelling, showing its challenges and benefits. And we strongly believe this will be possible again…. in a while.
As you already know, we are more focused on specific aspects of the nomadic lifestyle, and probably on its best benefits…. The subjects that scare and concern many who think about going remote: taxes, regulations, formalities. We will try to discuss them very soon.
And today, we are sharing some thoughts about advantages of these challenging times.
FORTUNE TELLER
There is no doubt that the meaning of work started to shift some time ago with a development of a gig economy. Many have already discovered freedom of remote work, decided to quit their full-time jobs, to work independently, setting up their own businesses or working as contractors, freelancers and switching to more flexible forms of employment.
It seems to be a global trend and not only in the context of recent challenges.
I started writing a post on the blog weeks ago, describing benefits of the digital lifestyle and judging that we would need to face a new era sooner or later, well….Who could expect this would become so fast a reality for millions of people?
TRIAL PERIOD
Being thankful for a possibility to continue to work as usual, we believe that, for some of us, it is a good time now to see how to adapt to the new conditions and check if we are able to work remotely. Don’t forget that the crisis will not last forever…. No matter how much we are craving a traditional day at the office (are we?), remote work is still a great tool. Especially when it is combined with travelling or is a form of having a side business.
It can turn out to be suitable for you to stay at your house, maybe not permanently, but when needed, having in mind that not everyone wants to sacrifice stability for freedom.
If you are forced to work from home, use the situation to test if it would be also possible for you to work from any destination in the world…when it all comes back to normal. And we dot necessarily mean traveling with laptop, when running from one hostel to another, from Chiang Mai to Santa Marta. “Slomads” are trending now and from our observations the concept of slow travelling is an interesting experience for those who prefer to stay in a place for longer. Working permanently from one country can be a very different experience than moving from place to place, just to check-in.
We strongly suggest benefiting from this time and encourage you to check if independent work is something for you, to rethink how and with who you would like to work. So many employees feel stuck or burned out at their positions. Unfortunately, we can already see people losing their jobs or waiting anxiously for the results of crisis, some already search for alternatives, learning skills that are useful for digital jobs. Maybe this is a time to start planning a business you have been always thinking of? In many cases it is possible to set up a company remotely and to run it online.
When it comes to entrepreneurs, this is for sure very challenging time for many of them. Some have already adapted their businesses to the current conditions, in clever ways, without waiting for a governmental support. This is another topic of discussion, leaving us with the reflection that nowadays we should not expect any support from the government. We need to be self-sustainable as never before, not even mentioning social security systems which are simply going to fail (and are already failing) in many countries.
PLAN IT WISELY
Take time to plan your scenarios: setting up a company or moving abroad – it all requires a good plan and knowledge. We are here to listen to your ideas, share our knowledge and experience in international tax and law. And most importantly: to guide all nomads in need on where and how they should do business in the way that is legal, safe and efficient from tax perspective.
More and more people decide to move abroad, constantly travelling and working at the same time or living in two, three or more countries during the year. In consequence, they change their residency, which very often goes with changing the tax residency.
Let us tell you a very important thing: ignoring your tax situation is a bad idea, even if you have planned a Travel Around the World …. And we advise to think about it in advance and to decide where and how you are going to declare your revenue.
Even if you do not want to have a permanent home, you still should think about a tax residency for yourself or your business. No point to run away from it, since there are already rules to follow and scenarios to create.
For now, let’s show an example of expats that relocated to a tax (and not only) friendly place, and changed their life, forever. Us, founders of CDX, permanently residing in Cyprus, enjoying the weather and great lifestyle of the island, but also travelling and…. not paying any dividend tax for 17 years of our stay here.
Digital nomads are privileged as they have the luxury to choose their tax residency country and legally save on taxes. In our next publications we will prove that you don’t have to be on a constant tour to benefit from nomadic lifestyle.
LIFE “AFTER”
We realise that for many people remote working brings some negative connotations. Indeed, we all noticed how important is the daily contact with people, even introverts are now craving for interactions.
At the same time, I wonder how many of us discovered that the recent concept of 4-hours working day is actually possible. That when skipping chit-chats at the office, we can be very productive and how many meetings can really take place by phone or e-mail. Some might feel a difference when working in more flexible hours, not under an eye of a supervisor. Many of us already see that with a good organisation the whole idea makes sense. Finally, this experience shows how important is trust in professional relations.
The pandemic will finish at some point and we will all need to find ourselves in the post-crisis reality. Most people will go back to their offices, some will not.
In normal circumstances, working digitally will not disconnect us from real life anymore, on the contrary, we will be able to discover more. It will be only an option, offering a luxury of working from any place we want.
We really hope that we will all be again free to choose very soon.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Stay tuned for more articles and check out YT channel that is launching soon!
And of course, ping us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn if you want to have a chat.
