Working remotely and live in 6 countries annually - where will I pay my tax

Question

Working as a software engineer for a French company and working fully remote.

The contract is freelance so I am paid the full amount and required to file & pay taxes myself.

I will be living in various European countries (8 months) and also in Asia (4 months).

At a high level can anyone please guide on what best practices to follow in this case... would I have a choice of countries to pay taxes in?

PS. The European countries I will live in will be Croatia, Malta, Czech Republic and Ireland.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: I am an EU citizen

Answer 1

Accountant and remote worker here. If you are just traveling, on your passport or tourist visas, you do not pay tax. You don't pay tax because you are a tourist and governments don't tax tourists for working on their laptop. As long as you are not employed in the countries you are visiting, no tax. You only pay tax where your official residence is (your home country).

Answer 2

I am not an accountant, but from what I understand you need to look at tax residency rules for each of those countries in addition to your home country.

For example, if you are a US citizen and worked in France, you can follow the French tax residency rules. Additionally, you would have to check if you satisfy the US Foreign earned income exclusion requirements to see if/how much taxes you owe the US.

It can get pretty complex, so good luck

Answer 3

I'm not an expert on this but as far as I know, you will have to pay taxes in the country where you declare your residency for more than half a year.

I assume you won't go and register as a resident in each country you visit (you are obliged to do so after 3 months of staying in a place). That being said you'll pay the taxes in the country where you have the official residency (I assume your home country)