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.
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).
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.
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.
The problem is the company is often compensating based the geographical area of the office. If the the WFH lovers want to keep doing it, they should put their salary up for renegotiation as the company sets the base pay indexed to Indian outsourcing firms. If you want a remote world, let’s have it, but let the employees see what global competition for compensation is really like.
The easiest way around this is to simply have requirements for employees to document the location of their primary residence as a condition of employment, and to require them to notify the company any time they work somewhere else.
The problem is state income taxes. If you work for a day in a state, you owe that state income taxes.
For example, if a Houston Astro plays the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, the player owes New York State income tax for the game.
Although the high-paid athlete or entertainer is the obvious target for state tax enforcement, the law is the same for all workers. If you work more than 10 days a year in NY, NY will come after you. If you work for a NY firm from a CT or NJ office, you make sure you don’t go to meetings in the city more often than that.
How the Jock Tax Works
https://awmcap.com/blog/jock-tax-2020
I have been working from home now since Covid hit - except for a couple brief periods where we were called back into the office. 2020 and 2021 I got the 2 best performance reviews in my 26+ years with the company. I traded 450 miles per week commuting time and MA State Income Tax for a 25 step commute into the spare bedroom and no state income tax. A majority of my co-workers chose to work remote while about 1/4 work 2 or 3 days in the office and 1/8th work full time in the office. My company moved from a 450-500 person office space to a 150 person office space and is still half empty most days. Performance has not suffered as the company has been growing much faster since 2020 then prior to 2018 and we are not in any industry that was helped by Covid. Initially (1st 18 months) of Covid we lost half our income, but we outworked our competition and are now growing like crazy while several of our competitors are suffering and 2 are looking to exit the business they compete with us on. Not sure if it has anything to do with it but our company ONLY hires US Citizens - even dual citizens are not eligible to work for us.
One of the big problems that will happen due to WFH is when people quit or retire because bosses usually only know part of what an employee does and now they will know even less.
The other issue is that we only have the bordering states in our payroll software. If we hire someone from Georgia, they have to handle their own state taxes.
Some of us have been saying this since it started. Work from home is a scam for most businesses.
The workers are “working” maybe 10 hours a week, and it will not last.