One of the first questions that comes up when international accounting professionals start seriously looking at US remote work is also one of the least clearly answered: will you be an employee or a contractor? The distinction matters more than most people realize, and understanding it upfront helps you evaluate opportunities more clearly, ask the right questions before signing anything, and structure your career in a way that matches your financial goals.
When a US company hires an international accountant as an independent contractor, the arrangement is business-to-business. You’re providing accounting services to the company, and they’re paying you for those services. You’re not on their payroll; you don’t receive US employee benefits, and the company doesn’t withhold taxes on your behalf.
In practice, this means your payments are a fixed monthly or biweekly fee rather than a paycheck with deductions. You invoice for your services, or the platform managing your contract does it for you. You handle your own taxes in your home country according to local law. You typically don’t receive health insurance, paid time off, or other benefits through the engagement.
The contractor model is the dominant structure for international accounting professionals working with US companies because it simplifies the legal and compliance picture significantly for both sides. US companies cannot easily hire international workers as employees without establishing an entity in the worker's country or using an Employer of Record service, which adds cost and administrative complexity. Contractor arrangements bypass that complexity.
Some US companies do hire international accounting professionals as formal employees, typically through an Employer of Record platform like Deel, Remote.com, or Rippling Global. The EOR becomes the legal employer in the professional's country, handling local payroll compliance, benefits administration, and employment law requirements. The US company pays the EOR, and the EOR employs the professional.
Full employment through an EOR generally means a local employment contract with benefits required by your country's labor law, payroll processed in your local currency, and statutory protections such as notice periods and severance provisions that do not exist in pure contractor arrangements.
EOR-based employment is more expensive for the US company and therefore less common for global accounting roles. It tends to appear at larger companies, in longer-term engagements where the company wants tighter integration, or in countries where contractor misclassification risk is high enough that the company wants to formalize the relationship.
A third structure worth understanding is fractional or part-time engagements. These are contractor arrangements where the professional works fewer than 40 hours per week, commonly 20 to 30 hours, and may work with more than one US company simultaneously.
Fractional accounting work is more common than people expect, particularly for Controller and CFO-adjacent roles where a company needs senior expertise without full-time headcount. A Controller working 25 hours per week for one company and 15 hours for another is earning from two clients simultaneously, which diversifies income risk and often totals more per month than a single full-time engagement.
MAVI supports both full-time and fractional placements, and some of the most financially successful professionals in the network have built portfolios of two or three concurrent part-time US engagements rather than relying on a single full-time client.
Contractor arrangements are generally less stable than employment contracts in terms of formal protections. A US company can end a contractor engagement with whatever notice period is in the contract, and in many cases that is 30 days or fewer.
In practice, well-performing accounting professionals rarely see engagements terminated on short notice, and multi-year client relationships are common, particularly at companies where the accounting function genuinely depends on them. The formal protection is not the same as in an employment relationship, and it is worth being clear-eyed about that.
The practical mitigation is straightforward: work through a talent network that actively sources new opportunities when engagements end, or build toward the fractional model where multiple clients reduce dependence on any single one.
Engagements through MAVI are contractor arrangements. MAVI holds the contract with the US client and pays the talent professional on a fixed schedule in USD. The professional doesn’t manage invoicing or client payment logistics. Contract terms, payment schedule, and scope of work are all specified in the engagement agreement before the start date.
This structure gives MAVI talent the cash flow predictability of employment with a fixed payment on a known schedule, without the administrative overhead of independent contractor billing. MAVI also actively manages client relationships, which means engagement continuity is handled through the network rather than by the professional individually.
For the vast majority of international accounting professionals, the arrangement with a US company will be as an independent contractor. This is the standard structure because it avoids the legal complexity of cross-border employment. Some US companies hire international workers as employees through Employer of Record platforms like Deel or Remote.com, but this is less common for accounting roles and tends to appear in longer-term engagements at larger companies.
Contractor status typically means higher gross pay since the company is not paying employment taxes or benefits on your behalf, more flexibility in terms of working hours, and the ability to work with multiple simultaneous clients. The trade-offs are the absence of formal employment protections, no employer-provided benefits, and the responsibility to manage your own taxes in your home country. Employee status through an EOR provides statutory benefits and protections but is less common and tends to come with lower gross pay since the EOR costs are factored in.
Yes, particularly in fractional or part-time arrangements. Many international accounting professionals work with two or three US companies simultaneously for 20 to 25 hours each. This is most common in Controller and Senior Accountant roles where the company's accounting needs do not require a full-time commitment. MAVI supports fractional placements, and some of the highest-earning professionals in the network run multiple concurrent engagements. The key is transparent scheduling where all clients know about the arrangement and the hours are genuinely manageable.
Contractor agreements with US companies typically specify 14 to 30 days of notice for either party to end the engagement. Longer notice periods of 60 days are more common for senior roles like Controller where the transition is complex. For MAVI placements, MAVI handles transition management if an engagement ends, actively matching the professional to a new role rather than leaving them to source independently.