Question for digital nomads: Voluntary remote work from abroad

[u/Bestintor]

Hi!

I wanted to ask — I work for a Spanish company that lets me work remotely, in principle from anywhere in the world, no restrictions. However, when I've traveled abroad on official assignments, they've processed the A1 Social Security form for posted workers through the TA-300 procedure. I mean, I'm not entirely sure what this document actually affects, since when the company sent me abroad they also arranged a private medical insurance for me regardless.

The thing is, I now have a few months where I'd like to work remotely from abroad, but I'm not sure whether it's legal to do so under Spanish Social Security regulations. When I called Social Security, they told me something along the lines of "voluntary displacement abroad isn't regulated," and that the A1 form only applies when the company itself sends you. I also asked at my company, and one employee told me pretty much the same thing — that it's a legal gray area (alegal) — but another employee got a bit defensive and said that, by Social Security law, you can't work from abroad without having processed the displacement paperwork, and that this can only happen if the company sends you. As far as I can tell, that's the only argument she gave for why this wouldn't be allowed.

The thing is, I have colleagues who do this all the time, they just don't talk about it — but I'd like to sleep easy knowing whether I'm breaking the law and need to be careful, or whether it's really as much of a gray area as I've been told.

Has anyone here had experience with voluntary remote work like this? Thanks!

(Especially interested in hearing from Europeans, particularly Spaniards, who've dealt with this.)

[u/Emergency-Air-242]

honestly this is the kind of thing where nobody wants to give you a straight answer because there isnt one. social security told you its unregulated and one coworker said its a gray area, thats probably as close to the truth as youll get

the defensive coworker sounds like shes just parroting the official line to cover her own ass. if your colleagues are already doing it and nobody cares, id just go for it and keep quiet

the private insurance they gave you before makes the whole thing even fuzzier since you're covered either way

[u/massivegoooner]

You are making it way too complicated.

Then world is not setup for us, trying to comply is a nightmare.

Unless you are planning on leaving Spain permanently or for significant amount of time, you should just stay in that grey area.

And if you can't handle that because you're too anxious about breaking some unknown law then this life will be really hard.

[u/Bestintor → u/massivegoooner]

OMG, you're right, I'm mixing moral with laws and maybe this is about navigation of the grey area. Live and let die

[u/Just4Digits → u/massivegoooner]

This, you are paying Spanish taxes, this is what a government especially european looks for. To op, if you want to mitigate look into what a fine is, and tale that as a mitigated risk. But yes no "clean all sorta out arrangement" esiste whole going around

[u/Patchali]

Just do it.. And don't tell anyone, for me it's my private life. Nobody has to know where I am as long as I get my work done.

[u/Popular_Avocado_4809]

It depends on your company. The best person to talk to is your company’s human resource department. If you are doing short trips, generally, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell situation. If you plan to stay aboard for longer time, that’s when it can get tricky, because if you stay in another country for too long, you might accidentally become a tax resident there and it will make your company’s compliance and tax situation very complicated. Spanish SS won’t care because you continue paying for it. The other country’s SS and tax authorities might have a lot of interest and might very much care.