In today’s post, I want to bring some solutions for you who work remotely for American, Canadian or European companies and live in other countries or regions like Latin America or Asia, to get paid in dollars or euros, and even get the opportunity to earn some bucks while creating these accounts.

  • Taxes
  • US IRS Forms
  • Global multi-currency accounts available almost anywhere (both individual and companies)
  • Corporate account for exchange services (selected countries)
  • Regional digital Global accounts to receive in dollars or euros per country
    • Brazil
    • Want to see your country here? Send me the options in the post comments

Taxes

Talking about taxes is a complicated subject and it changes from country to country, so here my focus is to let you know about some solutions where you can receive your money, either as an individual or as a company. To be aware of the best option for you in your country, you should talk to an accountant.

This post is aimed for any developer that works and live outside of USA, Canada or Europe, but if you live in Brazil, I can guarantee you that the best option is to work and receive money as a company, so reach out to an accountant to know the better options to open your company (CNPJ). How is it in your country? Just let me know in the comments section below.

US IRS Forms

If you are working outside of USA for american companies as an individual, you will need to fill the form W8-BEN, but if you are working as a company, your tax form will be W8-BEN-E. This is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mandated form to collect correct Nonresident Alien (NRA) taxpayer information for individuals for reporting purposes and to document their status for tax reporting purposes.

  • W8-BEN for Individuals
  • W8-BEN-E for Companies

So depending of the way you choose to work and get paid, you fill one or another.

Global multi-currency accounts

Let’s move to what it matters the most: getting paid!

There are a lot of options that will work almost globally for everyone in any country, but these are also the most expensive ones:

  • Wise (offers both individual and company accounts in selected countries, worldwide)
    • It’s one of the most broaded services, offering accounts in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD and many more
    • They offer a Virtual and Physical Debit Card to be used worldwide, always converting from USD to the local currency, fees are way more attractive than normal banks (at 1,1% IOF for Brazil, see Wise website for fees to your country)
    • Allow you to receive and transfer from anywhere, in dollars or euros or any other currency supported by Wise
    • No maintenance values to keep it open
    • Opening your account through this link will give you a fee-free transfer up to $600 dollars / R$ 3000 reais
  • Payoneer (offers both individual and company accounts in selected countries, worldwide)
    • Offer accounts in USD, EUR, GBP,
    • 1% fee on any USD value income discounted immediately
    • Free of charge for EUR income (when those are above minimal value, not specified in site)
    • It’s already integrated with Fiverr and Upwork freelancer platforms
    • Offers a Mastercard Debit card for both business and individuals to be used worldwide
    • They are charging an Annual Account Fee of 29.95 USD when customers have kept their account open for 12 months without making a transaction, if you receive payments totaling under 2,000.00 USD (or equivalent) in any consecutive 12-month period.
    • It’s worthy only if you’re going to use it always, otherwise it’s not.
  • Paypal (offers both individual and company accounts in selected countries, worldwide)
    • Their fees are the biggest for receiving payments, and they vary from country to country
    • There are no maintenance fees to keep the account open
    • Allow you to receive and transfer from anywhere, between PayPal accounts and to any bank account through Xoom, that is a PayPal company service (Xoom is available only in selected countries)
    • In the past it was the only option, now you have many options
    • Mostly used for receiving and paying on eCommerce, for these they are a better solution

All of these offers a digital account where you can receive in dollars and keep the currency. Some of then offers the business account only in certain countries, but all of then offers the account as individual in most of the countries. From these three, only Wise offers a Debit card.

And now there are other regional options that I’ll be sharing here, those are only for selected countries, and most of these I’ve used myself:

Corporate account for exchange services

These options are available for who is working as a company and needs to receive payments as a company. These are NOT considered digital accounts, they are more likely exchange services just to receive your payment and convert to your local currency and send it to your bank account.

  • Higlobe: available in the following countries: Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines. This is one of the most affordable options since it charges only 0.5% fee on every received payment and there is no IOF charge to send it to your own account (taxes in Brazil).
    • You can hold your payment in the account up to 6 months before exchanging it to your local currency.
    • This accepts only ACH transfers into it’s account from your customer only and it creates an account with your company’s name.
    • You will need to send your company details and docs in order to open this account.
    • These options usually offers the best trading rates.
      • If you register until the end of March 2024 through this link here, you will receive $50.00 in your account after receiving your first payment from your customer higher than $500.00.
  • TechFX: available only in Brazil. This is also one of the most affordable options, charging only 0.5% for each received payment and no IOF is charged (taxes in Brazil)..
    • You can hold your payment in the account up to 6 months before exchanging it to your local currency.
    • This accepts only Wire transfers into it’s account from your customer only and it creates an account with your company’s name.
    • You will need to send your contract with your customer to then.
    • You will need to send your company details and docs in order to open this account.
    • These options usually offers the best trading rates.
  • Husky: available only in Brazil: this company was owned by Nomad (that I’ll talk later) and offers a similar service to what Higlobe and TechFX are offering.
    • Their fees are around 1% and uses intermediate banks in the transaction.
    • If you ever used their services, leave your feedback in the comments below.

Regional digital Global accounts to receive in dollars per country

  • Brazil

These accounts offers global account solutions for both individuals and companies registered in Brazil. You will likely need to have a local account in these banks before requesting the global account for most of these. The values mentioned in this post are up to the date of this writing. The options that I use are:

  • Banco Inter Global Account (individuals and companies):
    • You can hold your money in dollars as much as you want and this is protected by FDIC up to $250k in case of bankruptcy.
    • Free to open and no maintenance fees for both individual and business accounts
    • You can transfer to any account in US
      • as ACH for free and
      • as Wire Transfer for an $15 fee and
      • receive from any account in the US
        • for free as an individual,
        • $15 fee as a company for each transaction when this was USEND, not sure if this fee still remains.
    • You can also exchange the value to your Banco Inter account in Reais (with Spread and IOF).
    • It offers a Virtual and Physical Debit card in dollars to be used in your travels around the world with the Mastercard brand, fees with this are less expensive in comparison to traditional credit cards (IOF).
  • C6 Bank Global Account (individuals and companies):
    • You can hold your money in dollars or euros as much as you want.
    • It charges a $10 dollar fee to open an account in each currency. If you want the Dollar Global account, it costs $10, but if you want both, also the Euro Global Account, it will costs you $20. You can choose which one you want.
      • You can have it for free if:
        • If you have investments over R$ 20k in their CDBs
        • If you own their Mastercard Carbon Black
        • If you have any credit card and do an exchange over $100 or 100 euros until the last day of the next month after opening your global account you’ll have your opening value credited back.
    • This account doesn’t offer any FDIC protection since this is located in the Cayman Islands and not in the USA like the ones that offers this protection.
    • There is no maintenance costs
    • You can transfer to any account in US as Wire Transfer for $20 fee / 20 euros for SWIFT transfers and receive from any account in the US or from Europe for $10/10 euros
    • It’s one of the most expensive options in the Brazilian market
    • You can also exchange the value to your C6 Bank local account in Reais. (with Spread and IOF).
    • It offers a Mastercard Debit card in dollars or in euros to be used in your travels around the world.
  • BS2 GO Account (individuals and companies):
    • You can hold your money in dollars as much as you want.
    • No opening costs and no maintenance costs
    • This account doesn’t offer any FDIC protection since this is located in the Cayman Islands and not in the USA like the ones that offers this protection.
    • You can receive and transfer to any account in US with a fee of $12 for each transaction (both for receiving or sending money).
    • You can also exchange the value to your BS2 local account in reais. (with Spread and IOF).
    • It offers a Debit card in dollars to be used in your travels around the world with the Mastercard brand, no cost for the first emission.
  • Nomad (individuals only): this option works but is not recommended to receive payments since this only allows you to receive as an individual, it’s better for travelling or investing.
    • There is no company account option until the time of writing this post.
    • This account is available for residents in Brazil and in the USA only
    • You can hold your money in dollars as much as you want and this is protected by FDIC up to $250k in case of bankruptcy
    • You can transfer to any account in the US as Wire Transfer with an $10 fee and receive from any account in the US for free right now.
    • You can also exchange the value to your local bank account (with 2% fee Spread and IOF)
    • It doesn’t have account in Reais
    • It offers a Debit card in dollars to be used in your travels around the world with the Mastercard brand
      • The virtual version is free and can be added into Samsung Pay and Apple Pay
      • The physic card costs $20 dollars for shipping to Brasil, free to customers in the US.
    • If you register your account through this link using the invite code TNCPI3EBQR, you will get $20 dollars in your account after your first real to dollar exchange.

Do you wanna share here what is the best way to receive money in your country from abroad? Or contribute with another payment method mentioned or not mentioned here? Just let me know in the comments section below.

See you in the next post!