Allowing an assistant to choose which hours they work is attractive to them, but if you give them full freedom, keep in mind that you will want to stay up to date with what hours they are actually putting in. I don’t recommend the second option above because it can make contacting your assistant difficult. Some questions may go unanswered for 12 hours, and by then the answer may be too late. Lately, I have been insisting that my assistants work only my hours. Often, I have to pay more for this service, but it is valuable to have them at my disposal for the full day. If I do pay extra, it is not a huge sum of money. Most of my virtual assistants make between $350 and $500 dollars a month. ● Paying Virtual Assistants Let’s discuss ways to pay your virtual assistant. In the very beginning, I never put my assistants on U.S. payroll. I also don’t deduct U.S. taxes, simply because they already pay taxes in their own country. I usually pay through PayPal, as it’s the easiest method for everyone. If they cannot accept PayPal payments, it can be quite inconvenient. I don’t hire people who need their salary paid via wire transfer, or any other way that is a hassle for me. When I first began hiring virtual assistants, I did hire people who were unable to get payments via PayPal. I sent them money via Western Union, but that was complicated and expensive. It added the inconvenience of having to go to a store to make the transfer, which may not always be possible. My recommendation is that, if you cannot pay them via PayPal, do not hire them. It is easy enough to find someone who does have a PayPal account. While I am not an attorney or an accountant, it has been my experience that there is no need to fill out any tax paperwork for overseas virtual assistants. I have never needed to do so. However, keep in mind that this is not official legal advice, just my experience. I simply track what I have paid to overseas contracts and report that to my CPA at the end of the year.
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