I’m a Founder - Can I Use An EOR to Employ Myself?
Three founders have asked me some version of this question in the last few months. Their company is a US entity. They live in Canada, or Taiwan, or New Zealand. US payroll doesn't work cleanly for someone who isn't in the US, their accountant has started asking questions they can't answer, and somebody in a founder Slack told them to just use an Employer of Record.
It's a fair question and it comes from a sensible instinct. But it’s probably not the right move.
The mismatch
An EOR exists to solve one problem: you want to employ someone in a country where your company has no presence and doesn't want one. The EOR has a legal entity there that you can use. It employs the person, runs local payroll, carries the local employer obligations. Your company stays out of the country: the worker there is the EOR's employee, not yours.
If you’re the founder, your company already has a presence in that country, and the presence is you. You live there. You work there. You are not a subcontractor, you’re the CEO. Whether your presence is taxable or has other legal implications isn’t something an EOR service provider can tell you. Using an EOR to hire yourself may violate the EOR's terms of service or be a reason for the EOR to decline to work with you (don't lie to them, either). Even if the EOR is willing to work with you, that doesn’t mean they’ve evaluated your risk - they’ve evaluated their own risk.
The questions
When you ask how you can live in one country while running a company in another, you're actually asking three separate questions that belong to three different bodies of law:
🔷 Immigration. What is your immigration status? Are you a citizen, a permanent resident, or a digital nomad on a tourist visa? Can you lawfully be employed by a local entity where you live?
🔷 Business. You aren’t an ordinary employee at all, given that you own the company and direct your own work. Self-employment structure is first a business law question, then it might be an employment law question.
🔷 Tax. What does your physical presence and decision-making do to the company's exposure in that country, and to the company's tax residency?
What you should do
You find three (or four) people, and none of them are me. And sorry, it's going to be more expensive than an EOR’s monthly fee.
You need:
An immigration lawyer where you live, who can tell you what your current status actually permits and what alternative statuses are available.
A business lawyer where you live, who can tell you what legal structures for self-employment are available to you. Depending on the jurisdiction and business structure, you may need a local employment lawyer after this.
And a tax advisor, who can tell you what it will cost.
The EOR idea looks easy next to three or four professionals because it's answering a different question than the one you actually need to ask.
For information only. This piece is not comprehensive and is not legal advice. Business, employment, immigration, and tax law vary by jurisdiction and change often. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this. When in doubt, consult counsel.
