Remote Work on Tourist Visas: Immigration and Tax Risks Explained

A tourist visa does not by itself authorize work from inside a foreign country, even when the employer, customers and salary are overseas. Immigration and tax authorities may focus on where the employee physically performs the duties.

Remote work can therefore create four separate questions: whether the visitor status permits the activity, whether the employee becomes tax resident, whether local workdays generate salary tax, and whether the employer incurs payroll or business-tax duties.

The answers can diverge. A country may permit overseas work for visitors while still taxing income connected with duties performed there.

New Zealand allows qualifying overseas work, but local limits remain

New Zealand permits qualifying visitors to work for an overseas employer or overseas client. Immigration New Zealand applies that permission to visitor visa applications received from January 27, 2025, and says there is no specific limit on the amount of overseas work a visitor may perform.

The permission has boundaries. The visitor cannot work for a New Zealand employer, provide paid goods or services to a New Zealand person or business, or perform duties requiring physical presence at a New Zealand workplace.

Emails, coding, reports and online meetings with overseas colleagues can fall within the permitted activity. Immigration New Zealand also advises visitors to examine whether their stay creates New Zealand tax obligations.

Other destinations take different approaches. Canada generally allows a qualifying digital nomad working for a foreign employer to use visitor status and stay for up to six months at a time, subject to the authorized period of stay. The arrangement does not authorize entry into the Canadian labour market.

The position changes when the person works for a Canadian employer, serves Canadian clients, transfers to a Canadian office, performs duties for a Canadian host entity or accepts a Canadian job offer. Those activities may require a work permit and can trigger Canadian payroll duties.

The United Kingdom permits activity connected with overseas employment when it is not the primary purpose of the visit. Tourism, visiting relatives or attending meetings may remain the main reason for entry, with incidental overseas duties during the stay.

A person who works normal full-time hours, repeatedly returns, rents long-term accommodation, manages a business or serves UK customers faces greater visitor-compliance risk. The rules do not authorize living in the UK through repeated six-month stays while carrying on a normal full-time job.

Australia takes the clearest restrictive position among the examples. Home Affairs states that Visitor visas and Electronic Travel Authorities do not permit work, and warns that working in Australia on that status is illegal. A laptop, foreign employer, overseas salary or absence of Australian customers does not change that position.

The United States allows limited B-1 business activities, including consulting with business associates, attending conferences, negotiating contracts and certain commercial transactions that do not involve US employment. The State Department says B-1 status is not appropriate for skilled or unskilled labour or employment in the United States. B-2 status covers tourism and does not permit employment.

Checking occasional messages during a holiday is not the same factual arrangement as performing a full-time job from a US apartment.

These general positions do not replace the conditions attached to a person’s visa or entry record.

Immigration permission does not settle the tax question

Immigration status and tax residence use different legal tests. A person can lawfully enter as a visitor and still become tax resident. A person can also remain a nonresident while owing tax on salary connected with duties physically performed in the host country.

Domestic tax rules may examine days present, access to a home, family location, repeat visits, economic connections, intention, continuity, personal affairs and a permanent place of abode.

The often-cited 183-day threshold is not a universal safe harbor. The US substantial-presence test counts at least 31 days in the current year and applies a weighted total of 183 days across the current and preceding two years.

The UK treats 183 days as one automatic residence test, but other automatic tests and the sufficient-ties test can establish residence with fewer days. Canada can treat someone as factually resident because of significant residential ties, while a separate deemed-residence rule can apply after 183 days without those ties, subject to treaty considerations.

Staying below 183 days therefore does not automatically prevent residence, salary tax, payroll withholding or employer exposure.

Salary sourcing often follows the place where the employee performs the duties. The employer’s incorporation, the contract location, the payroll account, the bank account and the location of customers may not control.

The Internal Revenue Service states that compensation for services performed in the United States is generally US-source income, regardless of where the contract was made, where payment occurs or where the payer resides. An overseas company can therefore pay salary that remains connected with the country where the employee opens the laptop and works.

Treaty relief usually requires three conditions

Many bilateral tax treaties follow the employment-income structure in Article 15 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. Under that structure, host-country tax may remain unavailable when all three conditions are satisfied:

1. The employee stays within the treaty’s day limit.
2. The remuneration comes from, or on behalf of, an employer that is not resident in the host country.
3. The remuneration is not borne by a permanent establishment or fixed base in the host country.

The OECD Model uses a 183-day test, but each treaty controls its own measuring period and wording. A local company treated as the economic employer, a local reimbursement of salary, or an allocation to a host-country branch can defeat relief.

The same result can follow when a treaty uses another counting period or when no treaty exists. Even when treaty relief ultimately prevents host-country tax, it may not stop withholding when salary is paid.

Payroll duties can arise before the final tax result

A host country may require a foreign employer to register for payroll, deduct tax, report compensation, make social-security contributions, file employer returns or issue year-end wage statements.

The Canada Revenue Agency says nonresident employers generally have the same withholding obligations as Canadian employers for employees performing services in Canada, even when a treaty may exempt the employee from final tax. Relief may require an approved employee waiver or nonresident-employer certification.

Payroll registration does not necessarily depend on taxable business profits. An employer may need a local tax number, payroll account, social-security registration, workers’ compensation registration, employment-law representative or reporting agent without maintaining an office or taxable business presence.

HMRC applies detailed PAYE rules to globally mobile employees. The payroll result depends on UK duties, tax liability and whether the foreign employer or another UK entity has sufficient UK presence.

Social-security agreements may keep an employee in the home-country system during a temporary assignment, often through a certificate of coverage. Without an agreement, contributions may arise in both countries. Public health insurance, pensions, minimum wage, working-time limits, paid leave, workplace safety and employer-liability insurance can also enter the analysis.

The employer’s business presence depends on the work itself

A permanent establishment, commonly called a PE, can allow a host country to tax part of a foreign company’s business profits. The OECD Model describes a basic fixed-place concept, including a branch, office or place of management. Treaty rules may also create an agency-based PE when a person habitually exercises contract authority.

An employee’s home, rented apartment, coworking space or other regular location may raise fixed-place questions. The OECD’s 2025 Model Commentary says working from a foreign home does not automatically give an employer a place of business there. As a general indication, work from that location for less than half of the employee’s total working time would not, by itself, normally create a place of business.

More extensive work requires examination of why the business is being carried on from that country. The applicable treaty, domestic law and local tax authority’s interpretation remain controlling.

Commercial authority raises a separate risk. Contract negotiation, sales, customer management, local operations and senior executive functions are more exposed than routine internal work.

A software engineer completing internal coding for three weeks presents a different profile from a regional sales director negotiating and finalizing contracts for six months.

No single factor decides the outcome.

Written approval should cover more than the visa

Before approving cross-border work, an employer should record the destination, immigration status, dates of presence, earlier visits, citizenship, tax residence, duties, customer contact, contract authority and the entity benefiting from the work.

The review should also cover salary-cost allocation, withholding, social security, registration, business-presence exposure, employment law, data security and the maximum approved duration. Any extension or change in duties should trigger a fresh review.

Employees should confirm whether their visitor category permits the activity, whether work can be the main purpose, whether local employers or customers are barred, and how long they may stay. They should also check tax residence, salary taxation, treaty coverage, withholding, social security, contract-negotiation restrictions, data access and travel-insurance coverage.

Records should include passport entry and departure details, a travel calendar, visa conditions, written employer approval, workday locations, payroll statements and tax paid in both countries.

A two-week UK family visit with occasional email activity differs from three months of overseas client work in New Zealand. A four-month Canadian stay for a foreign employer can still raise Canadian salary and payroll issues. A sales director spending five months negotiating contracts from a holiday apartment presents a much higher employer risk.

The decisive review should happen before departure. Foreign payroll, a short stay and employer permission do not replace an immigration, tax, payroll and social-security assessment.