Remote Across the US and Europe

A US company hiring in Europe has a limited set of options, and which one they use changes your contract, your equity treatment, and your taxes.

Employer of record. The company contracts a provider — Deel, Remote, Velocity — that employs you locally. You get a normal local employment contract with local benefits and protections. Common, well-understood, and the cleanest arrangement for most people. Ask which provider and what the benefits actually are.

Contractor. You invoice them directly. Higher headline rate, but you carry your own taxes, social contributions, insurance, and time off, and you have far weaker protection against termination. Compare it to an employed offer only after subtracting all of that — the gap is usually larger than it looks. Also check the misclassification risk: if the arrangement looks like employment in your jurisdiction, that's a live legal issue for both sides.

A local entity. If they have one in your country, this is a normal local job with no intermediary.

Equity gets complicated across borders. Options can be taxed at grant, vest, exercise, or sale depending on the country, and getting this wrong is expensive. Ask whether other people in your country hold equity and how it was structured; if the answer is "you'd be the first", budget for professional advice.

Bands are location-adjusted, and increasingly less so. Some companies pay a single global band, some pay US rates minus a factor, some pay local market. Ask which model they use — it's a factual question and the answer sets the ceiling for the entire negotiation.

Overlap hours are the thing people underestimate. A West Coast company and a European engineer share very little of the working day. Ask what's fixed: standup, all-hands, whether you're expected on calls at 7pm. Four hours of overlap is workable; being permanently on evening calls is a different job from the one advertised.

Practicalities: which public holidays apply, how leave works, equipment and co-working budgets, whether there's a travel expectation for onsites, and any visa or right-to-work constraints on either side.

Two offers with the same headline number can differ enormously once employment structure, taxes, benefits, and expected working hours are accounted for. These are also factual questions with correct answers, so they're cheap to ask and hard to get wrong once asked.

• Establish the employment model early: employer of record, contractor, or local entity.
• Contractor rates must be discounted for taxes, social contributions, insurance, leave, and termination risk.
• Check misclassification exposure if a contractor arrangement looks like employment.
• Cross-border equity taxation varies by country and stage; ask whether anyone local already holds it.
• Ask which comp model applies — global band, US-minus-factor, or local market — before negotiating.
• Pin down fixed meeting times and required overlap; "flexible" without specifics usually means evenings.
• Confirm holidays, leave policy, equipment budget, and onsite travel expectations in writing.
• The headline number is not comparable across structures — normalise before deciding.