Posted on 11/22/2022 2:12:34 AM PST by EBH
Some remote workers are playing hooky from their company’s homebase these days, and bosses are catching on.
The pandemic challenged the idea that the office was an important fixture of the workplace as people working from home were found to be just as productive. Some relished their newfound freedom away from their desks, giving rise to a growing crop of digital nomads life who worked from alternative living situations like a van on the road or from Airbnbs in countries offering digital nomad visas like Portugal.
But such flexibility has been curtailed as companies increasingly push for a return to the office. Some workers aren’t ready to give up their travels all that easily, preferring to maintain a better work-life balance and standard of living.
Enter what Bloomberg deems ‘stealth workers,’ employees willing to go the extra mile to hide the fact that they’re living more than an extra mile from their company’s headquarters. As Bloomberg describes it, these workers continuously bop around more affordable locations, using VPN to hide that they’re working abroad, logging in as early as 2 a.m. to disguise their actual time zone, and lying about their home address...
Tattling tax return forms are revealing employees’ secrets. Alex Atwood, CEO at Virginia-based recruiting app GravyWork, told Borchers one of his stealth workers who had worked in Texas and California, unbeknownst to him, cost him up to $30,000 in taxes and fees since GravyWork wasn’t registered as a business in those states. He estimated it cost him more like $500,000 between that and lost productivity from dealing with it all.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
This topic/situation is ripe for the picking of doing what is best for the modern workforce.
Employers have for years paid exorbinant taxes across state lines etc. But when it comes to nomad employees it is the employee hiding their location.
It is time to change the tax code. A 'flat tax' would eliminate the cost and the behavior.
Being an entrepreneur myself, I can empathize with the employee desire to avoid the office. As long as they deliver on their work I do not have a problem with the idea of WFM or nomad. But I do need to know for tax purposes.
As the FED gets ready to bring on the CBDC, the government 87,000 new tax agents, etc. Maybe it really is more about putting the archaic tax code to rest too.
It is time for a modern tax code based on the modern work models emerging in the workplace.
I've been a contract worker for years (since "retirement") and recommend it highly.
As an aside, it is ridiculous to rate employees on their hardworking appearance instead of their output. The primary value to having workers in the office and under their bosses's noses is that bosses gain comfort by "watching"...they don't know how to delegate. And, of course, there is a loss of power that comes with using remote contract workers. Bosses like power.
I agree
The next day he had been called away again. I was complaining to the other government guy that I kept missing the boss and therefore couldn't start work at the site.
He said “Oh wait - you need to talk to Bob Anderson!? I didn't know that. You have to get to his office at 6 am. He comes in, turns his lights and computer on, and then goes off to his real job as a consultant. He swings by on his way home to turn the lights off, but that can be anytime between 2 and 5 pm.”
Bob showed up a little after 6 am, signed my papers and off I went!
My daughter works with a guy at a part-time job. The guys real work is tech and he works from home. “Yeah - I have 3 work from home jobs. I punch in, have breakfast, take a nap, do some work at the various jobs, exercise, etc. I just have this job to get me out of the apartment so I don't get too bored.”
Pay less for remote work. They typically give location allowances to salary ranges.
So if someone wants to work remotely AND get the metropolitan bump, the employer can verify address by having employees allow access to tax returns (form 8821).
I absolutely agree.
But, the tax code doesn’t allow for it under their current definition of Independent Contractor.
Things changed during Covid, but I think many of the remote workers are contract workers, especially in the IT world that I was in for my career, for the last 20 years or so of my work career in IT, I was a contract remote worker all of that time.
Technically there was not reason to be in the office, I could and often did work from anywhere and helped maintain a worldwide computer network.
I could be in the middle of nowhere and maintain routers/switches and other network equipment halfway around the world.
The tax code doesn’t allow for what?
In many ways companies are already paying less for remote workers, I was in the IT world the last 20 years of my IT career as a contract worker who worked remotely.
In most cases you were paid an hourly rate with no benefits. My hourly rate was more than full time employees, if you factored in the benefits employees received, they were paid more.
I do not think that is the core of the issue.
The issue is/are the taxes that come with remote work. They waived them during the pandemic, but the pandemic introduced millions of people to the idea of remote work and remote teams.
It was an unexpected advance in the modern idea of work.
Get your work done and go have fun. I do not have issues with this at all. The problem is the tax code.
Needless to say, they love their lives...particularly when they want to go for a hike or it's time to fire up the grill (food smells and tastes so much better in the wild).
They're like gypsies without the negative connotation.
Depending on what an IC is doing, their definition doesn’t allow for some workers to be considered IC.
Independent contractor vs. employee
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/worker-classification-101-employee-or-independent-contractor
As to being an integral part of the business for which I am an IC, that has never been an issue even though my work is a key aspect of the business (I am a real estate appraiser--mostly land--and that's the sole reason for my contracting business's existence).
Regardless of the fuzzy sound of the rules, the IRS considers a person a contractor if he is at arm's length from the company (the boss has no power over you), gets no employee benefits, has no guarantee of employment, and has no financial interest in the business for whom he works.
They are easy to get around if you are truly an IC.
I’ve been a contractor for 15 years. I work remotely through various headhunter/consulting firms. The banks I work for don’t really care where I’m located.
you make sense.
Remember Joe’s increase in IRS agents. Remember them training against people in one bedroom apartments and at small business locations even though they are “targeting the rich”
remember the Treasury is trying to force companies under 20 employees to sign up for on a list “to limit shell companies.”
Tax code is designed for screwing over individuals and small businesses, and won’t ever change.
Same as with the cops. Why go after the hard targets? you can shake down the little guy a lot easier and with little effort.
aka your good idea is never going to happen.
Yup. 100% this. I work remote and as long as I have cell reception, I can work from anywhere. Just get the job done, doesn’t matter where you are (of course if your job can be done remotely…if not learn to code :) )
Time to get rid of the unconstitutional income tax and the IRS.
The company I recently left is having all kinds of problems now. A few years ago during the height of the virus, they decided to just eliminate the office entirely. This created a new level of chaos, as most of my employees were H1. Our productivity actually went down. They started relocating around the country despite having to declare an address. They were actually staying with friends, their arranged marriage partners, and there was no way I could enforce anything.
I heard this year some got fired because they were caught working a second remote IT job. I always knew something wasn’t right.
With Cell phones and a solid internet connection, which is not very possible regardless of location, you can literally work from some of the most remote locations.
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