Posted on 02/01/2021 8:25:19 AM PST by NohSpinZone
Can a state collect income tax from nonresidents working remotely for in-state businesses? Massachusetts, New York and some other states claim they can, and now New Hampshire is asking the Supreme Court to protect its citizens from this tax grab.
Tens of millions of Americans have been working from home during the pandemic, including an estimated 2.1 million who used to commute to the office across state lines. Enter Massachusetts, which in April adopted an emergency regulation declaring that nonresidents employed in the state before the pandemic must still pay its 5% income tax even if they are working remotely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Both states are saying they are the primary taxing authority and you pay the residual to the other. Also, no taxing state gives credit for working in a non-tax state, so working from Texas for part of the year won’t save you any state income tax, while it can impact what another income taxing state is paid.
No one gets a credit for non-income tax states, because of how it’s done.
Everyone should move to a non-income tax state and never work in an income tax state, in any way.
I live in Georgia and worked remotely for a company in Massachusetts. I paid GA state tax not Massachusetts as they also had a presence in GA. I still work remotely now but as a contractor whose payroll is processed by a third party.
“Yes, there are cases where “taxation without representation” is legitimate. Income taxes are paid in the jurisdiction where you work, regardless of whether you live there or not.”
But I ACTUALLY worked in NYC. Whenever I worked at a client in NJ, I was able to apportion a part of my compensation to NJ, and to thus pay a slightly lower rate. If I had stayed home and tele-commuted (not that there was such a thing back in the late ‘80s), I wouldn’t have paid NYC/NYS tax...despite the check coming from a NYC company.
What’s different now? You don’t work in a state, you don’t benefit from their laws or the protection (physical and legal) that they give people working there, then you don’t have to pay.
Your conclusion is upside down if you live in NY and work in CT. The existence of a tax credit is irrelevant to whether a jurisdiction can tax you.
Taxation is **NOT** based just on where the income was generated. Try earning interest income or dividends (or a salary for that matter) overseas as a US citizen or a Permanent Resident - you will pay tax to the US on your worldwide income.
Taxation is based on your residence AND where it is earned.
That's the key: You have to keep meticulous records to show where you actually worked on any given day. I was in a similar situation, and over the years I learned that it was worth the time to break the hours down if you worked at least 30% of your time in New Jersey instead of in your New York office.
What’s different now? You don’t work in a state, you don’t benefit from their laws or the protection (physical and legal) that they give people working there, then you don’t have to pay.
The difference in the NH-MA case is that NH doesn't have an income tax, so there's no tax return to file outside of MA to document how much of your income is "non-MA" income.
Your conclusion is upside down if you live in NY and work in CT. The existence of a tax credit is irrelevant to whether a jurisdiction can tax you.
My conclusion is the same, but the numbers are different. In my example, the person who lives in NY and works in CT would pay $4,000 to CT, report a $5,000 tax obligation to NY, but then only pay NY the difference between the tax obligation and the amount paid to another jurisdiction.
Taxation is **NOT** based just on where the income was generated. Try earning interest income or dividends (or a salary for that matter) overseas as a US citizen or a Permanent Resident - you will pay tax to the US on your worldwide income.
You will pay the tax to the U.S. on your worldwide income, but you will also be credited for taxes paid to other jurisdictions. I've been in that situation, too. The standard approach was always the same: Prepare the tax returns for the various places where you WORK first -- to figure out how much you owe to those jurisdictions. Then prepare the tax return for the place where you LIVE last -- so you will know how much you will have in credits from other jurisdictions to offset your "home" tax liability.
With so many of us moving out of Hellinois, my employer simply told us to move to a state where we already have a presence in for tax purposes. Most are moving to Florida, Arizona or Texas where we have a presence.
Hellinois is fooked. We’re one of the larger employers in Hellinois too.
My point is that you will pay taxes both where you live and where you work, if they are two different jurisdictions. Also, anyone who has gone through this process understands that you are going to pay tax at the rate of the higher tax jurisdiction.
What REALLY ticks me off is that if you earn only a small percentage of your income in a high tax state, they will generally make you calculate ALL income wherever earned, then calculate their tax, then make you pay X% of the total tax to them. What this does is to push you into the highest possible tax bracket in their state.
*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.