General information for US business owners and managers, not legal or tax advice.
Australian business? Read Is offshoring legal in Australia?
A US business can engage an Offshored team member through a service contract with Offshored Pty Ltd. Three questions decide what applies to you: who employs the worker, what you sign, and which data rules cover the information the worker handles. Offshored's team members are employed in the Philippines by Australian Pathways OPC, a registered Philippine company, so you buy a staffing service rather than hiring or paying an overseas worker (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Two companies sit behind every Offshored placement. Offshored Pty Ltd is the company you contract with and pay. Australian Pathways OPC is the Philippine company that legally employs your team member and handles all Philippine employment obligations, including salaries, benefits, social security and taxes. Your team member is assigned to work under your direction and supervision, in the hours you set (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Each team member also receives HMO private health insurance on completion of the six month probation period, and takes the 11 US federal holidays as paid days off (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
For federal employment tax, the IRS applies the common law rules to decide whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee. It looks at the relationship between the worker and the business across three categories: behavioral control, financial control and the relationship of the parties, including how the business pays the worker and whether it provides employee type benefits (IRS Topic 762, Independent contractor vs. employee).
That test is the risk when a US business hires a person in the Philippines directly and pays them as a contractor. Under the Offshored structure you make no payment to the individual and provide no benefits: Australian Pathways OPC pays the salary, benefits, social security and Philippine taxes, and you pay one monthly service fee to Offshored Pty Ltd (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients). There is no contractor agreement between you and the worker for anyone to reclassify.
There are two contracts, and you are party to one of them.
Form W-8BEN-E is used by foreign entities to document their status for US tax withholding and reporting. It is given to the withholding agent or payer and is not sent to the IRS (IRS, About Form W-8BEN-E).
Offshored Pty Ltd provides a completed Form W-8BEN-E to any US client on request (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Work is done in your systems, under logins you issue and control. Team members connect through a VPN or directly through your own platforms, depending on your IT setup, and Offshored holds no client data on its own infrastructure. Every candidate has a pre-screening interview and an NBI clearance, the Philippine national police check, and all client system logins are removed on the team member's last day. USB ports and personal cloud drives are blocked on company supplied devices. Offshored is not ISO 27001 certified (Offshored data security page).
The CCPA applies to for-profit businesses that do business in California and meet any of three tests: gross annual revenue over $25 million; buying, selling or sharing the personal information of 100,000 or more California residents or households; or deriving 50% or more of annual revenue from selling California residents' personal information. The exemptions for employee data and business to business data expired on December 31, 2022 (California Attorney General, CCPA, updated August 28, 2026).
If the CCPA applies to you, the duty to respond to consumer requests sits with your business, not with a service provider you use (California Attorney General, CCPA). Because your team member works inside your systems, the requests are handled in the same systems you already answer them from.
The HIPAA Rules apply to covered entities (health care providers that transmit health information electronically in a standard transaction, health plans and health care clearinghouses) and to their business associates. If a covered entity engages a business associate to help carry out its health care activities, it must have a written business associate contract that sets out what the business associate has been engaged to do and requires it to protect protected health information (HHS, Covered Entities and Business Associates). HHS publishes sample provisions for that contract (HHS, Business Associate Contracts).
Offshored signs a business associate agreement with any US healthcare client that needs one (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, transmission, loss, misuse or theft of client data is a serious breach that may result in immediate termination, civil liability and criminal prosecution, including under the Philippine Data Privacy Act. You can also require a separate non-disclosure agreement (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients; National Privacy Commission, Data Privacy Act of 2012).
Yes, through a service contract. With Offshored you contract with Offshored Pty Ltd, and your team member is employed in the Philippines by Australian Pathways OPC, which handles salary, benefits, social security and taxes (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Australian Pathways OPC (Company Reg. 2023010082245-00), a registered Philippine company. You direct and supervise the daily work (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
No. You pay one monthly fee to Offshored Pty Ltd, invoiced in US dollars, and Australian Pathways OPC pays the team member (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
Yes. Offshored Pty Ltd provides a completed Form W-8BEN-E to any US client on request. It is the form a foreign company uses to document its status to a US payer (IRS, About Form W-8BEN-E).
It applies to your business if you meet one of its three tests, wherever your staff sit. Your team member works inside your systems, and Offshored holds no client data on its own infrastructure (California Attorney General; Offshored data security page).
A HIPAA covered entity must have a written business associate contract with any business associate that handles protected health information for it (HHS). Yes. Offshored signs a business associate agreement with any US healthcare client that needs one (Offshored Terms of Service for US clients).
This page is general information only, not legal or tax advice. Laws and agency guidance change. Check the primary sources linked above and obtain advice specific to your business.
Book a call or message us, and we will explain who employs your team member, what your agreement covers and what you need from your side. We reply within one business hour.
Book a 20-minute call WhatsApp +61 485 065 141