Linx Team · 8/31/2026
You've got talent lined up in Singapore. Your star product manager is in Berlin. And somehow, your best developer lives in a cabin in rural Canada. Welcome to the modern workplace, where geography is optional but paperwork is decidedly not. The question that keeps you up at night: can you hire without setting up a local entity in each country where you want to employ people? The good news? Not necessarily. The complicated news? It depends on several factors that deserve serious thought.
You can hire people in other countries without establishing a local entity in those countries. Yes, really. But before you celebrate with that glass of wine, understand that "you can" and "you should" are two very different sentences. Think of it this way: there's the legal possibility, and then there's the smart business move. You might be technically able to hire directly from the United States while your employee sits in France, but doing so without the right structure is like building a house without checking the local building codes. Sure, it might work. Right up until the local government says it doesn't.
Let's start with the basics. A local entity is basically a separate legal business that you establish in a specific country. It's a distinct company that handles employment in that country, follows that country's rules, and takes on the legal responsibility for things like taxes, labor laws, and insurance.
Option 1: The Contractor Route
Option 2: The Employer of Record (EOR) Solution
Option 3: The Parent-Subsidiary Playbook
This depends on your situation. Let's look at the decision factors:
Can you hire without setting up a local entity? Absolutely. Should you? That depends on who you're hiring, where they are, how many people you're bringing on, and how risk-averse you want to be. For your first global hire, a contractor arrangement (if genuinely appropriate) or an EOR service probably makes the most sense. You get someone on your team without the complexity of setting up an entire new company. As you scale and hire more people in specific countries, revisiting the local entity option becomes increasingly smart from a financial perspective. The key is making this decision deliberately, with good information and professional advice specific to your situation. That's not the most exciting answer, but it's the right one.