* He/she is employed by a US company as a contractor and works remotely
* He/she is not a US citizen and lives outside the US
* In the day to day work and team culture, there seems to be no difference between employees and contractors
Basically the benefit to the client company is that it lifts the burden of employment/taxation questions from them. The benefit for you is that since you now own a proper company, you have more tools to manage your finances, for example your company could conceivably pay for office expenses, effectively making those purchases pre-tax (as opposed to paying yourself the equivalent amount and being subject to income tax deductions).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_employer_organiza...
Is it possible to just export services as a sole proprietor without forming a company?
I am the foreign contractor in this situation and I like it. I wish many more companies would hire this way, since a real FTE would require the company to establish a presence in my country (which will never happen).
I understand the risks of hiring as contractor with an employee-like agreement if I was in the US. But I am not. So what are the risks then?