HUSBAND. FATHER. DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST.
ENTREPRENEUR. MEDIOCRE GOLFER.
I’m John Jonas. I live in Utah and I founded OnlineJobs.ph. My life is better because of my Filipino OFS (Online Filipino Specialist). My team.
I had a normal “job” for 8 months after college and my biggest goal at that time was to be able to quit that job. I managed to quit back in 2004 and worked from home for myself ever since then.
When I first hired someone from the Philippines in January of 2006, I knew I was onto something special. Since then I’ve learned that for most people, life is definitely better with Filipino workers on your team.
Yes, because of my Filipino workers I get to play a lot of golf, spend a lot of time with my wife and kids, and get out backpacking in the middle of the week. I work for about 17 hours a week because of the amazing work they do. However it’s not just better for us; it’s better for them too.
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talented OFS from the Philippines
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an OFS using Onlinejobs.ph
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P.S.
I DON’T DO SOCIAL MEDIA…
MY OFS DO IT FOR ME.
Top 9 VA questions answered (continued)
Last week I answered questions 1-5:
1. Is there good talent?
2. How do you know if you can trust someone?
3. How much time will it take to find someone good?
4. Will you find someone for me?
5. How much should I pay?
Today, questions 6-9:
6. What tax implications are there?
I’m not a CPA or an attorney so I’m not qualified in any way to give you tax advice.
But in my experience, the only tax implication is the wages you pay them are a deduction on your taxes. That’s it. If you’re in the US, you should have them fill out a W-8BEN. It says they’re a foreign independent contractor. Keep it for your records.
That’s it.
There’s no 1099 (they’re not in the US). There’s no withholding (they’re not paying taxes in your country). There’s no government requirements. There are no required benefits. There’s no way to consider them an “employee” in your country. In fact, the Philippine Government prohibits you from considering them an employee unless you have a legal entity in the Philippines, which you dont. They’re an independent contractor. That’s the end of it.
The one exception to this MIGHT be in Australia where a couple years ago there was a government agency who decided a specific VA could be classified as an employee. It hasn’t happened since. It’s not law. Again, this is a maybe, and only for Australia.
We’ve never encountered anything else anywhere else in the world (except for CPA’s who always freak out when they first hear about it and always say “You might have to classify them as an employee” (every one of them says this). We’ve never once seen it happen, they’re always wrong.)
Again…I’m not a CPA or attorney. Go talk to yours.
7. How do timezones work?
There’s only 1 timezone in the Philippines. It’s GMT +8.
This single timezone means most Filipinos have never deal with timezone changes.
If you’re in
– US – Philippines is 12-15 hours ahead of you.
– Europe – Philippines is 7-8 hours ahead of you.
– Australia – Philippines is 0-3 hours behind you.
There are Filipinos working round the clock. You can easily find someone to work your timezone. Just make sure to post it in your job post.
And remember, the night shift is often hard for people. Imagine if you had to work a night shift.
What I find is that I overlap with people at some point during my day. So except for customer support, I let all my people work whenever they want.
If they’re a morning person, they overlap with my afternoon. If they’re a night person, they overlap with my morning.
I love the time difference because it lets me get work done without being distracted by requests all day.
8. Sensitive information
You work in the health field.
Or insurance.
Or financial.
Or [insert whatever field you’re in that has sensitive info…it’s all basically the same].
Yes, there are companies in your field hiring Filipinos to do the work.
Yes, they’re seeing customer information.
Yes, they’re communicating with customers.
Yes, they’re still compliant.
I say it like this because nearly every day someone says “Oh, but I’m in [insert whatever industry] and we’re heavily regulated! We can’t do that.”
Treat it just like you would having someone locally working from home.
What about them stealing info?
I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’ve seen Filipinos steal info. But almost every time it was because the employer didn’t pay them for work they did and they were just trying to get paid.
Filipinos don’t want to steal your info, they want a job so they can support their family (obviously I’m making a generalization here, based on 20 years experience).
9. How to pay them?
www.OnlineJobs.ph/easypay
No subscription required. Easy.
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