Jubril Agoro remembers first hearing the word “coronavirus” last March in Bali, Indonesia. “I was just panicking,” he says. After 11 years on the road, the co-founder of financial education business Live Richer Academy and founder of travel video company Passport Heavy rushed to get on a flight back to the US.
Agoro, 34, is one of a growing number of digital nomads — people who work remotely online and are “location independent”. According to a report by MBO Partners, which supports independent professionals and their clients, their numbers have increased by 49 per cent in the US during the pandemic, rising from 7.3m in 2019 to 10.9m in 2020. The “biggest shift is that traditional job holders have been unleashed from their offices and many, instead of staying in one place, are taking to the road,” the report adds.
A nomadic life is very appealing — and some countries, such as Barbados and Bermuda, are trying to attract more remote workers. But the wider tax implications of working away from your home country are complex. Anyone planning to work abroad long-term needs to get specialist tax advice.