Can you work in one country and live in another?

[Camomila]

Just idly wandering (mainly based on the threat of no deal + how cheap nice flats are in my nearest 'naice' town in Italy)

Can/do people work from home for a British company while living in the EU?

I imagine if anyone would know it'd be the Brexit board. Although, I imagine everything will change post Brexit.

Awaits being told it's a legal/tax nightmare!

[mackerella]

My brother does this - he works for a UK company (he's British) but is resident in a different EU27 country (where his wife is from, and where his kids have citizenship). BUT... he has to work in the UK for 2 weeks of every month, in order to satisfy some employment or tax requirement. As his company is near to where my parents live, he stays with them while he's in the UK and commutes to the office from there. He works from home in the other country the rest of the time.

The advantage is that he can earn a much higher wage than he would in the other country (which is one of the newer EU states) - although this is being severely eroded by being paid in GBP while living in the Eurozone! But he's away from his family for 2 weeks every month (more like 12 days if you can get good flights), and the travel is both tiring and expensive. He's also jeopardising his right to stay in his resident country as he's now no longer working there and, post Brexit, won't automatically be able to live there!

Some of this won't apply to you if you have an Italian passport, but I'd look into whether you'd be required to work in the UK part-time if you're an employee of a UK company. I guess you could get round that by being a freelancer, but then there would be tax issues to sort out in Italy.

[Ofitck]

I know quite a few people who live in France but work in Spain. And also some people who live in spain but work for British companies.

[spinn]

The uk currently has agreements with many countries regarding tax to avoid double taxation. You need to do some googling around that to see if it works in your scenario....whether it will work after Brexit is a whole other scenario.

[VenusOfWillendorf]

This varies from country to country but is certainly possible. The easiest is NI/ROI as there's an agreement in place to treat the citizens of each the same as home citizens. That will stay even if there's a no-deal brexit.

The rest have different regulations. But whether you pay tax in a country depends on how many days you spend/work there. Currently, you only pay tax once, but who you owe it to can be split between two counties if you are moving between two.
I live in Switzerland, near the border. Many people commute daily from France and Germany. We can work from home, but theres a rule that people living in F/G can only work a max of 24.9% from home, as any more makes social insurance deductions too complex as split between the countries. For income tax, people are taxed on where they live, not work. I also have a friend who lives in Switzerland but works in the UK quite a lot as her company have an office there. If she spends over a certain number of nights in the UK, she gets a tax bill from the UK.
Neither example is useful to you, but just to show what's possible.

[Pineappleunder]

Also here you can't be self employed but only working for one company and invoicing them as this is seen (quite rightly) as them evading their social security contributions.
If you had several UK based clients it is possible .

[Pineappleunder]

In France you wouldn't be able to do this. You would be liable for social security in your country of residence so the UK company you worked for would need an umbrella company in France in order to pay your social security contributions.
Might be different in Italy though...

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I came say that plenty of people live in either RoI or NI and cross the border for work, so it's clearly possible. Whether that will become impossibly complicated after Brexit is one of many, many things that nobody knows.

I think the OP's hypothetical question is different as you would not physically be in the UK while you're working, so I suspect you would need to invoice the UK office for your work and pay Italian tax as a self-employed freelancer.

[cherin]

Errate corrige: all the bills are MORE expensive

[cherin]

Italy and U.K. have a mutual agreement of single taxation on income, which is no linked to EU, so in principle you would not pay double tax on your salary, BUT let me remind you how high housing taxes and costs are in Italy...heating in winter is easily 200€/m (gas only) if you live in the north, all the bills are not expensive, if you don’t fill your tax return by yourself (which is way more complicated than with inland revenue) you’ll have to pay from 700 to 1800€/y of accountant. If you buy a property you have to fork out thousands for solicitor...all in all, it is not always as cheap as it looks.
Schools are in general good, not as complicated/competitive as getting a place in a decent school in a big town in England (no idea about other parts of U.K.) but you have to buy books and that’s easily 200€/y, afternoon clubs when available are all means tested and I don’t know how they’ll deal with someone with a foreign income...they might just decide they charge you the max (which might be 200€/m) and buonanotte ;-)

[ChilliMum]

Yes. We live in France near the Swiss border and lots of people work across the border.

If you have Italian citizenship then you should have no problem. I can only speak for our situation but tax situation takes a bit of work to set up but not too complicated as long as the 2 countries have a double tax agreement.

It might be worth looking (depending on your dh field) if your dh can set up as self employed and then contract his services remotely to a UK company??

[Mistigri]

Will depend on the country - but even if it is possible, given Brexit you might be better off going self-employed so that you are paying into the social security system of the country where you are resident. This will ensure access to health care etc after Brexit.

Best case scenario is that your current employer has a local office they can employ you through. This is how I am employed (work for U.K. company, report to a U.K. based manager, employed through the French subsidiary on a French employment contract).

[elizabethdraper]

Lots of people in my office in the ROI, live in NI

so can be done

[timeforakinderworld]

Actually I think you can pass citizenship to your husband without a job - although obviously a job is useful for other reasons too!

[timeforakinderworld]

Lecco is lovely!

[Camomila]

Sorry it was a bit of a confusing OP! I'm Italian living in England. I was thinking of the nearest town (Lecco) from my dads village (we lived in the village until I was 5 and came here).

Not actually planning to move unless things get really bad but if we did I'd have to get a job so DH could go over as a spouse. My written Italian isn't very good, which is what made me think about English speaking jobs but done from home.

[CatyaPurella]

You may have to check with your employer as I worked somewhere where you had to live and work in the same country due to tax laws - ie you couldn't have a U.K. contract, be paid in GBP but work part of the time say in Germany

[Abraid2]

No problem!

[MaxNormal]

@Abraid2 sorry, I missed the "how" in your post and answered what you didn't ask, apologies.

[MaxNormal]

If there’s no deal, how will you be able to live in the EU as easily?

No

We will have Third Country status. The residency requirements will be onerous.

[probstimeforanewname]

The best option would be if your employer has an office in the country you want to live in and then they can pay you in local currency and if they say they are employing you, it can help get around the lack of freedom of movement for British citizens as well. I thought of this as well just after the referendum but my employer at the time didn't have an office in Germany (though they did in Austria).

As I freelance I could work anywhere. DH's employer does have offices in Germany. DS is about to start A levels. In theory we could potentially do it.

[timeforakinderworld]

What do you mean by nearest town? Are you in Italy already? which town? Sorry being nosey!

[timeforakinderworld]

It's definitely possible as I know people who do it but I think it is tricky tax wise - you probably have to pay tax in Italy too to have access to local and health services.

[Abraid2]

If there’s no deal, how will you be able to live in the EU as easily?

[BogglesGoggles]

This can definitely be done but can cause difficulties from a tax perspective both for employer and employee. If you work for a big organisation they might have a local office they can move you to?

[Camomila]

I was thinking about the PAYE/NI that gets taken out...I'd not want to pay that and pay the Italian version instead.

It's a bit of a pipe dream though as DH barely speaks any Italian. (My Italian is fine for day to day life but I'd struggle in a professional job)