r2i forum

Hi Guys,

I am an Indian citizen working in a MNC company at Bangalore. I work as a product developer with 4 yrs work exp.

Recently, I have been in talks with a US based company working in the same domain as the product I've been working and they are very interested in recruiting me as their own employee.
The US based company does not have any India branch and they are willing to sponsor my H1B Visa to help me to move to US.

Scenario: Since the H1B cap is already hit and no more Visa's will be approved until Oct 2013, the company has offered me to start working for them remotely from India. Once I have a H1B permit in Oct 2013, I will be moving to US, but again in the worst case I may have to continue working from India if the visa is not approved.

With the above scenario is place, I am a little confused and afraid as this holds some amount of risk involved, since I'll be the lone employee working the US company from India. But, their response is very supportive and they are willing to go an extra mile to help achieve this.

Kindly answer the below questions so I can take my future steps very carefully by being well apprised.

Questions:
1. Taxing: Since the company does not have an India branch I will be paid in US$. So, the initial period while I am in India how will the taxing work? Will I have to pay taxes twice in US as well as in India?
2. Contract based employment OR salaried employee: Since there are a lot of benefits (health insurance) involved with a salaried employment, but since I will be working in India for a while I will not be utilizing any of these, hence the recruiting officer and I discussed about choosing the best kind of employment while I'm in India. Please advice?
3. I haven't spoken to the HR but in the talks with the recruiting officer, I asked if there will be a revised plan for salary compensation while I am in India and when I move to US. For this, the answer was I will be offered the same package and will continue from day 1. Question: From your past exp in the forum has such a case occurred? This will be clarified soon but wanted a heads up.

All responses are highly appreciated !!:))

Thanks
Balachandra K

I am not an expert but this is what I think:

1) Until you are in India you will be an Indian resident, so you won't be liable for paying personal income tax in US. Since they don't have a legal entity in India, there will be no TDS and you will need to pay income tax in India yourself. This is regardless of whether you are a salaried employee or contractor. It may be a good idea to consult a tax expert about this.
2) Do you have a bank account in US where your salary could be deposited? I guess that will be a requirement if you are an employee. When you are in India you won't be able to utilize US health insurance, 401k benefits etc. As a US employee you may need to pay social security and medicare. Technically, these are not taxes. So it may be better to be a contractor and instead ask to be paid at an equivalent rate.
3) This kind of ties into #2 - it seems to imply that you will treated as a US employee from day 1.

SJ