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wayneedclarke
Community Member

bank accounts for getting paid

I am a Canadian living in the Philippines.  I registered as Canadian and used my Canadian address because it is relevant for clients of my work to know that I am Canadian and not Filipino.  However, I do not want to use my Canadian bank account to get paid from Upwork in Canadian dollars, I'd prefer to use my Philippine bank account and get paid in Philippine pesos or US dollars.  How can I do that?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hi Wayne, 


I would like to add to what has already been shared. If you are travelling and are away from your country of residence temporarily,  you don’t need to update your location. If it does raise any flags on our end, the team will reach out to you directly.  If however, you are going to be away for an extended period, such as moving some place, then you should make updates to your account location. Also, it's recommended that you check with a legal adviser if you need a certain type of visa or a work permit to be able to work on Upwork while travelling.


~ Avery
Upwork

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10
petra_r
Community Member


Wayne Edward C wrote:

I am a Canadian living in the Philippines.  I registered as Canadian and used my Canadian address because it is relevant for clients of my work to know that I am Canadian and not Filipino. 


That's not how it works.

If you live in the Philippines, you must set your profile location accordingly because your profile must truthfully reflect who (and where) you are.

 

Now you have drawn attention to the fact that your profile currently doesn't truthfully reflect where you are, it would be a good idea to correct this immediately.

Thanks for your reply, but I respectfully disagree.  I am a Canadian citizen, I am not a citizen of the Philippines, I am in the Philippines on a renewable tourist visa, and I can only renew it for 2 years before I must leave the Philippines.  The Canadian address I gave when I signed up for Upwork is my legal Canadian address, it's where I live when I'm in Canada, it is what the Canadian government considers to be my residence for the purposes of taxation and voting, and I do still file income tax in Canada, and vote in Canadian elections.  I am in the Philippines for now, and I may continue to be here most of the time in future years, or I may travel while I'm working.  One of the major benefits of Upwork is that I can work from anywhere, and if I travel constantly and cross a border every week, or every month, no one would think that I should change my address and my country of residence in Upwork's records every time I go to a new country.  I can use my Canadian bank account with my Canadian address, but It would cost me more in ATM fees to withdraw the money here in the Philippines, or to transfer money to my Philippine bank account.

Or I could register as a Filipino and use my Philippine bank account, but I am not a Filipino, my customers may not find me if they're looking for a Canadian, or they may mistakenly find me if they're looking for a Filipino.  Or I could continue to travel and go to another country at any time, and then my country of registration would not be accurate in any way.


Wayne Edward C wrote:

Thanks for your reply, but I respectfully disagree.  I am a Canadian citizen, I am not a citizen of the Philippines, I am in the Philippines on a renewable tourist visa, and I can only renew it for 2 years before I must leave the Philippines.  The Canadian address I gave when I signed up for Upwork is my legal Canadian address, it's where I live when I'm in Canada, it is what the Canadian government considers to be my residence for the purposes of taxation and voting, and I do still file income tax in Canada, and vote in Canadian elections.  I am in the Philippines for now, and I may continue to be here most of the time in future years, or I may travel while I'm working.  One of the major benefits of Upwork is that I can work from anywhere, and if I travel constantly and cross a border every week, or every month, no one would think that I should change my address and my country of residence in Upwork's records every time I go to a new country.  I can use my Canadian bank account with my Canadian address, but It would cost me more in ATM fees to withdraw the money here in the Philippines, or to transfer money to my Philippine bank account.

Or I could register as a Filipino and use my Philippine bank account, but I am not a Filipino, my customers may not find me if they're looking for a Canadian, or they may mistakenly find me if they're looking for a Filipino.  Or I could continue to travel and go to another country at any time, and then my country of registration would not be accurate in any way.


You can work from anywhere and travel all you want, but if your country of residence does not reflect where you are actually living, upwork will delete your profile in a not very respectful way. 

Thanks Martina. I accept that I must use a bank account from the same country as my country of residence.  So which country should I use, the country I am legally a resident of, or the country I am presently living in?  And if the latter is the case and I do travel farther, how long can I stay in a new country before I must consider it to be my country of residence, and change my Upwork registration?

Hi Wayne, 


I would like to add to what has already been shared. If you are travelling and are away from your country of residence temporarily,  you don’t need to update your location. If it does raise any flags on our end, the team will reach out to you directly.  If however, you are going to be away for an extended period, such as moving some place, then you should make updates to your account location. Also, it's recommended that you check with a legal adviser if you need a certain type of visa or a work permit to be able to work on Upwork while travelling.


~ Avery
Upwork

Thanks Avery.


Wayne Edward C wrote:

Thanks Martina. I accept that I must use a bank account from the same country as my country of residence.  So which country should I use, the country I am legally a resident of, or the country I am presently living in?  And if the latter is the case and I do travel farther, how long can I stay in a new country before I must consider it to be my country of residence, and change my Upwork registration?


That's a question for a tax lawyer, which you also need to consider on top of adhering to upwork ToS. In my case of Austria, for example, I know that if your stay extends 180 days, you are considered a resident for tax purposes and have to pay income tax in Austria. You might have to pay income tax in your country of origin too, that's why there are double taxation treaties between countries. There likely is a similar provision in the Philippines, because every country obviously is keen on getting the income tax generated on income in their country. If you live in the Philippines, you can't claim that your income was generated in Canada. 

Thanks. I didn't think there would be more responses to this thread after
I accepted a solution, so I posted the following as a private message to
Avery. But now it seems appropriate to post it here also, as a response to
your reply.

Hi Avery;

Since I accepted your reply as a solution to my query, I have done some
investigation into the matter, and I thought I'd share my results with you
in case the matter comes up in the community again.

You said; "If however, you are going to be away for an extended period,
such as moving some place, then you should make updates to your account
location."

You are partly right, in that if I move my official place of residence I
must update my account location. The indefinite term, 'an extended period'
is perhaps wrong, in that the length of the time that I am traveling is not
legally relevant. Canada allows me to work while I am traveling, and
Upwork allows me to work while I am traveling.

The Philippines allows me as a foreign tourist to work online for foreign
companies that I would normally work for while I was in my country of legal
permanent residence, as long as I maintain all the legal requirements of a
foreign tourist here, including leaving the country when my tourist visa
runs out. I could not work for a Philippine company or a Philippine person
while I am here on vacation, even if I did that work remotely online.

My mistake was in saying that I live here in the Philippines when legally
speaking I am not a permanent resident here, I am staying here temporarily
as a tourist. I am not legally allowed to claim the Philippines as my
country of permanent residence. You can only file your income taxes for
any given tax year in one country, there are international agreements to
that effect in order to avoid being multiply taxed on the same income, and
that country is your legal country of permanent residence. If I apply for
any kind of permanent residence or workers visa while I was here, and
worked for a Philippine company, and filed my income taxes with the
Philippine government, then I would legally be required to list the
Philippines as my country of permanent residence in my Upwork account, even
if I went back to Canada on an extended vacation.

The Philippines allows foreign tourists to open bank accounts in the
Philippines, so I have a bank account here and it would be more convenient
for me to be able to use it, but I respect Upwork's policy that freelancers
must use a bank account in their country of permanent residence in their
Upwork account, so I'll do that.

Anyway, I hope all that is informative!
martina_plaschka
Community Member


Wayne Edward C wrote:

I am a Canadian living in the Philippines.  I registered as Canadian and used my Canadian address because it is relevant for clients of my work to know that I am Canadian and not Filipino.  However, I do not want to use my Canadian bank account to get paid from Upwork in Canadian dollars, I'd prefer to use my Philippine bank account and get paid in Philippine pesos or US dollars.  How can I do that?


Upwork is set up in a way that country of residence, adress, bank information needs to be consistent, otherwise you are unable to withdraw earnings. It is one simple method to ensure people are really where they say they are, which is important because of all the fraudulent activity on the platform. You will find endless posts of people thinking it's a great idea e.g. to put US as their country of residence, only realising later that they don't have a US bank account. Those profiles don't survive very long, as upwork is not patient with people that don't adhere to the rules. 

Thanks for your response Martina.  Please see my reply to Petra R's response.

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