Can a US Employer Contract With Non-US Workers?

[mammondee]

Hello to all,

This is over my head. My client, a US Single Member LLC, is contracting his services to Halliburton. He is currently working in Brazil. He has sent me this e-mail:

"There is a Halliburton employee with citizenship in South Africa that is in Brazil helping to outfit a boat in Brazil. He has been working for as an employee at Halliburton for the past 12 years out of Angola, but Angola will not renew his work visa. (This is how he ended up in Brazil) To make a long story short, he is being caught up in a RIF and will not be a Halliburton employee as of the middle of this month.

The idea has been brought up for me to subcontract him. I could use the help. Before I agree to do that I thought that I better check to see what the ramifications are for doing this. If he were a U.S. citizen, I wouldn't have a problem as I could simply contract him and send him a 1099 at the end of the year. However, with him being a South African citizen I didn't know how the rules may change."

In summary, my US client want to hire a South African citizen to work for him as contract labor in Brazil. What are the requirements?

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[John Levine]

>In summary, my US client want to hire a South African citizen to work for him as contract labor in Brazil. What are the requirements?

As far as the US is concerned, you just pay him. When I asked a
somewhat similar question about paying a Candian who lives in Canada,
I got the advice to have the contractor fill out an IRS W-8BEN form to
certify that he is not a US person, and your client should file a form
1042-S to substantiate the payment as a business deduction.

Brazil probably has its own ideas about what's required when you pay
people who live there. Assuming you're not paying him under the table
(which makes the 1042-S a problem) it might be easier to use one of
those specialist firms that handle foreign employees, if you can find
one that understands Brazil.