{"id":127461,"date":"2021-05-31T17:20:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=127461"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:39","slug":"feel-like-working-under-a-palm-tree-better-check-what-may-lie-down-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/05\/31\/feel-like-working-under-a-palm-tree-better-check-what-may-lie-down-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Feel like working under a palm tree? Better check what may lie down the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working from abroad can create problems with your benefit payments, taxes and health insurance premiums. In several cases, it has seriously messed up people\u2019s finances. Erasmus University\u2019s HR department has launched a new campaign to raise staff members\u2019 awareness of this issue.<\/p>\n

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The Covid pandemic would seem the perfect occasion to pack your bags and work from abroad \u2013 be it your home country, closer to friends and family or maybe even in the shade of a palm tree. Shouldn\u2019t be a problem you\u2019d think, with all these people working from home and online. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it\u2019s allowed<\/em>. Employees who have moved base from the Netherlands during the pandemic but are still on EUR\u2019s payroll can encounter problems with their social insurance arrangements, the tax authority and\/or their health insurer. Incidentally, these rules will also apply after the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Snags and catches<\/h2>

Managers occasionally endorse a staff member\u2019s decision to work abroad \u2013 either temporarily or long-term \u2013 without knowing exactly what kind of problems this could create. The university\u2019s Human Resources department is working hard to impress this fact on the different faculties and MTs. Because the urgency of this matter is often underestimated.<\/p>\n

And it has already put a few people in a pickle. For example, some staff members have lost their benefits entitlements when they started working outside the Netherlands, and local authorities have fined people for failing to pay the requisite social security contributions.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more: staff members may get into trouble when they seek medical aid abroad. Dutch health insurance doesn\u2019t necessarily cover the costs of healthcare in another country \u2013 meaning that you may have to foot a steep hospital bill yourself.<\/p>\n

No longer in public service<\/h2>

\u201cWorking from abroad is definitely possible, but you need to have your affairs in order. What we\u2019d like to see is that people are duly aware of the risks before taking this step,\u201d says HR adviser Sam Broekman, who specialises in internationalisation.<\/p>\n

Even before the pandemic, Broekman\u2019s department was working hard to make the necessary adjustments and arrangements for staff members based outside the Netherlands. That\u2019s because a new act had come into force on 1 January 2020: the Public Servants (Standardisation of Legal Status) Act (WNRA<\/a>). In short, this legislation has scrapped university employees\u2019 public servant status, which had formerly assured them of Dutch social insurance \u2013 even when they weren\u2019t actually living in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Neighbouring countries<\/h2>

Since coverage is no longer a given, HR needs to establish separately for each staff member and country of residence which treaties are in place, and which regulations apply when determining how and where the individual should pay premiums to remain entitled to e.g. benefits. Even when you\u2019re registered at a Dutch address but are temporarily working from abroad \u2013 due to Covid, for instance \u2013 you may have to change how you pay social insurance premiums .<\/p>\n

Incidentally, in response to the Covid pandemic, the European Union has introduced a temporary scheme for certain work arrangements in which employees can continue to pay their contributions in the Netherlands. This scheme is primarily intended for people who work in the neighbouring countries Belgium, Germany and the UK.<\/p>\n

EUR employees across the globe<\/h2>

The HR department currently has some 50 EUR staff members on its radar who are working abroad \u2013 both in EU and non-EU states \u2013 and are (or should actually be) paying social insurance premiums to local tax administrations. Of this total, 15 employees work from Belgium or Germany and now have their affairs in order. HR International is \u2018working very hard\u2019 to get the other 35 sorted as well.<\/p>\n

EUR employees can be found as far afield as South America, the Middle East and North America. According to Broekman, virtually all of them are members of the university\u2019s academic staff, ranging from professors to doctoral candidates. A number of EUR\u2019s student assistants are also working from abroad, although they haven\u2019t been included in this tally.<\/p>\n

Incredibly complicated<\/h2>

\u201cEach country has its own social insurance arrangements \u2013 including individual EU member states. That can make things very complex occasionally,\u201d notes Broekman. As far as social security and health insurance are concerned , the Netherlands has agreements in place with its fellow EU member states, as well as most \u2018Western\u2019 countries like the UK, the US, Japan and Australia.<\/p>\n

But looking beyond this circle paints a very different picture, so employees planning to work from abroad may first have to go through a lot of fine print and cut through masses of red tape. And of course, HR prefers everything to be settled before people start packing. Sorting this stuff out after the fact is incredibly complicated, Broekman can tell us from experience, and is often a huge source of frustration and dissatisfaction at both ends.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just social security contributions and health insurance, which are both the joint responsibility of employee and employer. Paying taxes is another story altogether: in principle, making those arrangements falls to the individual staff member.<\/p>\n\t

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Go to this page<\/a> on\u00a0MyEUR to get the full story on how these regulations work, or feel free to contact HR International via hr.international@eur.nl<\/a><\/p>\n

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