Laws, taxes, and more: A practical guide to living the dream and becoming a digital nomad

Jon Yongfook documents his digital nomad life on [https://instagram.com/yongfook/](Instagram).

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. By being unconventional, the digital nomad life is a complicated one. In 2014, some digital nomads in Chiang Mai were arrested and detained because of misunderstandings about their employment status. Though they were released without any repercussions, legality is an issue. Digital nomads are often “technically illegal,” and wrangling with visas is tedious in general.

Estonia is a small country, but it’s also highly literate and known for being consistently tech-savvy. The northern European nation is planning to launch a “digital nomad visa” in 2019.

Thailand, where lots of digital nomads are currently based, has introduced a “Thai SMART visa” to attract medium-term residents who work in 10 tech-related “S-curve” industries. While this isn’t directly helpful to digital nomads (who typically want to be more mobile and flexible), it’s a sign that governments are responding to changes on the ground, and that more change is on the way.

But let’s step away from big questions about governments and hit the ground running. If you want to pursue the digital nomad life, what issues should you be concerned about?

The one constant: taxes

You should begin with the assumption that the country you’re residing in is going to assume you’re liable.

“The main misconception is, if I leave my home country, I don’t have to pay taxes there any more. Which is absolutely wrong, but it’s something a lot of early-stage nomads think,” says Raul Galera, a partner manager at customer referral platform ReferralCandy. He notes that while digital nomads tend to focus on their physical presence, they need to think beyond that. “There are all sorts of ties to your home country – bank account, cellphone plan, health plan, etc – that count. You can’t just say, ‘Oh I don’t live here, so catch me if you can.’ If you’re still using your local bank account to get paid, your local tax authorities care.”

A Spanish citizen who was a resident in Chile for two years and visited Singapore on a tourist visa, Galera cites another mistaken notion: that if you avoid spending more than 90 days in any country, you don’t have to pay taxes anywhere. “As a rule of thumb, you’re always tax liable somewhere. I live in Spain about six months a year, but I still pay taxes here all year around. Why? Because I have free health insurance, I use my Spanish bank account, I have an apartment here. Even if I lived three days a year in Spain, I’d still be liable.”

Galera wrote a more comprehensive post about the misconceptions people often have when thinking about digital nomads and taxes, which is worth reading in full.

Photo credit: Steven Zerlink / Flickr

Go where there’s company

It seems like most immigration-friendly and tourist-friendly countries are also quite comfortable with working nomads. In Asia, for example, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines appear to embrace transient freelancers, as long as they “don’t cause any trouble.”

“What surprised me was how efficient visa runs could be,” says Jon Tan, a Singaporean citizen who has worked out of Bangkok with a Thai tourist visa. If you have the means, he suggests hiring a third party to handle your visa issues.

Head to the embassy first

Don’t overstay your welcome

Go in with your eyes open