There are some countries who tax rule says if you are working in their country for certain days, you have to pay income tax to them. Meaning you are a tax resident.
My question is, how does the country know I am becoming a tax resident? If one forgets to pay it voluntarily after staying for a certain period and attempts to leave the country, it’s not like their border officer will catch you at the departure kiosk and charge you the tax, right?
For example, one can enter the country as a tourist and then stay/travel/working long enough to become a tax resident and not overstay. Does the border office somehow notify the government of his entry and then the timer starts ticking?
Does it work on a honor system in general? How do they enforce it?
I’ve always found this a little weird though. Like, you can go to a country for business meetings, but you can’t “work”. What if you’re an executive, and basically all of your job is meetings?
Well, broadly speaking, if you think about the intent of the laws, this isn’t that confusing. Such labour laws exist for the purpose of protecting the domestic work force, primarily those that have the skills to perform that job locally.
In the event of specific executive stuff, it’s specific. There isn’t actually competition.
On top of just the fact some Executive isn’t going to just overstay and illegally move there.
Add on even further that if a country wants to court foreign investments, requiring the foreign company executives to get work visas for everyone they send to the country to just inspect things and have a meeting would be a major difficulty in the context.
Want to speak at a conference in our country? Get a work visa!
Probably wouldn’t have many conferences hosted in your country. Most of the “business” contexts are ones where the country WANTS people to come in.
It’s a grey area. Countries have laws against foreigners working on tourist visas to protect the domestic workforce. Most really do not give a crap unless you are working there on a digital nomad visa long enough to become a tax resident, and taking in enough cash that tracking down your potential taxes is worth their time