Remote working and working abroad (IP location etc)

jmlad2020

As many of us are now remote working, will work necessarily know (or care) if I work from abroad? (i.e Northern Ireland, England, not farther than this)

I am considering visiting important family members for a short while and would prefer to work alongside them, remotely as I have no annual leave left.

Would using an Irish VPN address be the best bet, assuming they do track my IP location? I don't plan on going for no more than 2 weeks so revenue shouldn't seem to mind.

PommieBast

This sort of question was popping up a lot over in A&P a while back.

I wouldn't bother with a VPN, especially for a trip of only 1-2 weeks. You wouldn't be able to plead ignorance if caught using one of those.

Earlier this year I was working remotely from my parents' place in Hertfordshire and it was only about half-way through that two month trip I got round to telling my manager where I was. He didn't care.

Atlantic Dawn

Another issue is if they call your mobile they will know from the ringtone it's outside Ireland, don't think there's any way around this.

gifted

Out of curiosity....why would employers care where in the world you were remote working from?....genuine question.

PommieBast

gifted wrote: »

Out of curiosity....why would employers care where in the world you were remote working from?....genuine question.

I've heard there are issues with taxation should a stay overseas exceed residency thresholds. Apparently Spain is particularly diligent in chasing people and companies for their equivalent of National Insurance.

Blud

2 weeks won't matter.

But yes, this is a huge issue for companies for longer term cases.

jmlad2020

gifted wrote: »

Out of curiosity....why would employers care where in the world you were remote working from?....genuine question.

Silly question.

gifted

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Silly question.

Why ?... I asked a genuine question.....if you didn't want to answer it then don't. There was no need to post that comment....did it make you feel better posting it? ...are you somewhere now thinking that you're the funniest guy on the internet tonight and everyone wants to be your friend.....we'll your not...your just a nobody like myself but you obviously have notions about yourself.

jmlad2020

gifted wrote: »

Why ?... I asked a genuine question.....if you didn't want to answer it then don't. There was no need to post that comment....did it make you feel better posting it? ...are you somewhere now thinking that you're the funniest guy on the internet tonight and everyone wants to be your friend.....we'll your not...your just a nobody like myself but you obviously have notions about yourself.

Yeah a guy that names himself 'gifted' doesn't have notions of himself at all. Serious question. . What's your problem? Are you feeling ok? Your earlier question was silly and if you can't see why, then there is no point in telling you.

Rodney Bathgate

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Yeah a guy that names himself 'gifted' doesn't have notions of himself at all. Serious question. . What's your problem? Are you feeling ok? Your earlier question was silly and if you can't see why, then there is no point in telling you.

Maybe he was ‘gifted’ a site by his parents?

krissovo

Just talk to your boss, no point hiding it. As long as you are productive most decent managers would not care less.

Tax is only an issue when you are out the country for 172 days in a tax year.

Jim2007

jmlad2020 wrote: »

As many of us are now remote working, will work necessarily know (or care) if I work from abroad? (i.e Northern Ireland, England, not farther than this)

I am considering visiting important family members for a short while and would prefer to work alongside them, remotely as I have no annual leave left.

Would using an Irish VPN address be the best bet, assuming they do track my IP location? I don't plan on going for no more than 2 weeks so revenue shouldn't seem to mind.

If you are accessing any kind of data that is subject to legal requirements such as DPA etc...... you may find that your employer or worse the subjects of the data may a have a big problem with it.

Discuss it with your employer first.

3DataModem

PommieBast wrote: »

I've heard there are issues with taxation should a stay overseas exceed residency thresholds. Apparently Spain is particularly diligent in chasing people and companies for their equivalent of National Insurance.

This.

Also, some jobs attract company tax based on where the job is done. If the CEO of Ryanair worked remotely from the UK and made decisions while there, it would cause corporation tax issues for Ryanair.

Fr Tod Umptious

Hi OP
Will you be using company equipment, i.e. a laptop ?

There would be security implications of you installing a vpn independently on it.

No company with any sort of proper IT security setup would allow you to do that.

jmlad2020

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Hi OP
Will you be using company equipment, i.e. a laptop ?

There would be security implications of you installing a vpn independently on it.

No company with any sort of proper IT security setup would allow you to do that.

A personal laptop

antix80

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Silly question.

gifted wrote: »

Why ?... I asked a genuine question.....if you didn't want to answer it then don't. There was no need to post that comment....did it make you feel better posting it? ...are you somewhere now thinking that you're the funniest guy on the internet tonight and everyone wants to be your friend.....we'll your not...your just a nobody like myself but you obviously have notions about yourself.

I think he was trolling and it worked. What a response.

Patsy167

Definitely clear this with your employer if it is more than 2 weeks - 1-month. It will reflect well on you and your intentions are good.

Stheno

mod please quit the petty sniping. Any more and there will be cards

Fr Tod Umptious

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Hi OP
Will you be using company equipment, i.e. a laptop ?

There would be security implications of you installing a vpn independently on it.

No company with any sort of proper IT security setup would allow you to do that.

Thankfully not every company ruins laptops by locking them down. I can do whatever I want on my work laptop, I have my open vpn installed along with any other personal software I want most of it when I was configuring it out of the box myself.

Fr Tod Umptious

Achilles Gorgeous Drummer wrote: »

Thankfully not every company ruins laptops by locking them down. I can do whatever I want on my work laptop, I have my open vpn installed along with any other personal software I want most of it when I was configuring it out of the box myself.

That's exactly why IT security has become such big business, usually after the fact.

PhilOssophy

krissovo wrote: »

Just talk to your boss, no point hiding it. As long as you are productive most decent managers would not care less.

Tax is only an issue when you are out the country for 172 days in a tax year.

Is it not 182 days?

gifted

gifted wrote: »

Out of curiosity....why would employers care where in the world you were remote working from?....genuine question.

Some random ones.
Tax - being sure you and the company are paying the correct taxes.
Employment law - the employer might fall foul of legislation elsewhere.
Value for money - if you are earning a dublin salary but are living somewhere cheaper could your employer get better value out of you?
transfer of technology or data could be limited and you being somewhere you shouldn't be could cause problems.

Achilles Gorgeous Drummer

Achilles Gorgeous Drummer wrote: »

Thankfully not every company ruins laptops by locking them down. I can do whatever I want on my work laptop, I have my open vpn installed along with any other personal software I want most of it when I was configuring it out of the box myself.

Do you also pay the ransom when your files are locked by ransomware?

PommieBast

climbingpanda wrote: »

Do you also pay the ransom when your files are locked by ransomware?

Any proper disaster-recovery plan should sort that out. At my own company (at least in my section) the only thing that really matters is the business logic in the Git repo.

mada999

I'm jealous.... good luck!

Some websites do block VPN's depending on how secure they are etc. Test it out using the VPN first to make sure it works

Supercell

We use a vpn in work to connect from home anyhow, as others have said, it hardly matters as long the work gets done, why not just ask your boss and explain the reasoning?
Before the lockdown some of my colleagues from other countries typically took a few weeks over Christmas and summer time to work from their hometown which never was an issue either as long as it was for a few weeks only.

jmlad2020

Stheno wrote: »

mod please quit the petty sniping. Any more and there will be cards

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