Hiring a freelancer in The Ukraine via Upwork.
Hiring a freelancer in The Ukraine via Upwork.
Author
Discussion

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,810 posts

225 months

Sunday 9th January 2022
quotequote all
Has anyone done anything like this?

My OH is working on a side project and needs a small amount of freelance help. She's identified someone with the right skills, a compatible mindset and good English - he's in The Ukraine but also bobs to London to work sometimes.

The OH's main query is how to go about paying for his work...

Do you just pay via Upwork's own platform or directly?
What are the tax rules like in The Ukraine? Will the OH be liable for sorting his tax out or is it like the UK where self employed people are responsible for declaring their income?

Basically, can she simply pay him his fee and not worry about any of the admin attached to it or are there any special things she needs to be aware of?

mickytruelove

426 posts

127 months

Sunday 9th January 2022
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We use a developer occasionally for work that is above our skill level and he is in Latvia. I think we got in touch with him through freelancer.com 2 years ago but he just sends us an invoice for his work and we use Transferwise or Transfermate to send payment.

Upwork have an option to pay through their platform which gives you some protections for disputes. Might be worth using for the first transaction but you can use other payment methods.

As for tax, its simply pay the invoice and it is the responsibility of the freelance working to report it in their country.

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,810 posts

225 months

Sunday 9th January 2022
quotequote all
Cheers!

NorthDave

2,480 posts

248 months

Monday 10th January 2022
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We use Upwork a bit for server side work and more advanced development. Essentially we have a couple of subbies which we use when needed. We always pay through the platform unless it is a big piece of work when they prefer direct payment (I guess so they dont pay commission).

It works well once you find the right guys. There are some shocking people on their though!

SuperPima

29 posts

58 months

Wednesday 12th January 2022
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Am a Ukrainian myself, run two business in the UK while part of the team is in Ukraine. There are generally two options:
1. You pay via Upwork and not worry about the rest.
2. 8 out of 10 induvidual service providers in Ukraine would have a bank account at Payoneer or Transferwise. You can pay them into these accounts in EURO and they can deal with the rest themselves (taxes etc.).

Bear in bind that the taxes they pay are super small (around 6.5% all together) so often the charges by the banks are higher or comparable to taxes

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,810 posts

225 months

Friday 14th January 2022
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Thanks again...

He's keen to use Transferwise - now called Wise - which all checks out fine at our end, so that's what we're going to do.

Unknown_User

7,150 posts

108 months

Friday 14th January 2022
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Apologies for interfering but may I politely point out that the country you refer to is 'Ukraine' and not "The Ukraine".

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,810 posts

225 months

Friday 14th January 2022
quotequote all
That's interesting to know. Whenever it's mentioned on the news it's referred to as "The Ukraine", so I took that to be correct as you'd expect news presenters to know what they're talking about, but I'm happy to stand corrected.

Unknown_User

7,150 posts

108 months

Friday 14th January 2022
quotequote all
I thought it was 'The Ukraine' but a good Ukrainian friend of mine corrected me.