The rise of remote and globally distributed teams is forcing a long-overdue question back into focus:

When does working across borders quietly trigger tax exposure?

As recent discussions at the OECD highlight, remote work doesn’t just affect payroll. It increasingly touches permanent establishment risk, transfer pricing, and profit attribution—often in inconsistent ways across jurisdictions.

This is where international tax treaties still matter.

At a business level, treaties function as rulebooks countries agree to so cross-border income isn’t taxed twice or unpredictably. For U.S.–Korea companies, treaties typically help in four core ways:

• Allocate taxing rights so business profits aren’t fully taxed in both countries
• Define permanent establishment thresholds
• Reduce withholding taxes on dividends, interest, and royalties
• Resolve dual tax residence through tie-breaker rules

As remote executives, employees, and board members work across borders, companies must understand when presence becomes taxable, how profits should be attributed, and which country has priority to tax.

The companies that prioritize clarity treat tax treaties as operating infrastructure professionally aligned with workforce strategy, IP location, and growth plans.

That’s the terrain global businesses are navigating now.

GridSquare Legal focuses on helping APAC and U.S. companies interpret these frameworks before fog and friction appears—so growth stays scalable, defensible, and predictable across borders.

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