If you’re among the workers who plan to continue working remotely, you may want to evaluate your 2021 tax situation.
While many states offered a pandemic-related reprieve that generally resulted in no tax filing obligation for remote workers who worked temporarily in their state, the leniency was for 2020 returns. And as the nation emerges from the pandemic, that compliance break will be going away.
“As emergency orders are lifted, the guidance is changing,” said Eileen Sherr, director for tax policy and advocacy with the American Institute of CPAs. “Some states are lifting them now.”
Many workers began doing their jobs remotely more than a year ago when companies sent their employees home en masse due to the pandemic. In June 2020, an estimated 42% of the labor force was telecommuting, according to research from Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
Of those who were still doing their jobs remotely in late 2020, about 30% said they were working in a different state than where they had lived and worked pre-pandemic, according to a survey done by the Harris Poll on behalf of the American Institute of CPAs. Most people surveyed (72%) were either “very” or “not at all” familiar with their state’s tax requirements for remote work.
It can be complicated. Different states have different approaches for when they expect you to report income earned there, and the rules don’t necessarily mean you’ll be paying more overall in taxes because most states provide a tax credit to eliminate double taxation (although that isn’t always the case).
“The No. 1 concept for an individual who is a remote worker to know is that whatever state you are a resident of gets to tax your wages, regardless of where you earned them,” said CPA Michael Bannasch, state and local tax practice leader with RKL, an accounting and advisory firm.
However, he said, you might have a tax liability in another state if you earn money or work there or if it’s where your company is located, depending on the states involved.
For example, some states let nonresidents work there for more than 30 days without a withholding requirement, including Arizona and Hawaii, which let you be there for up to 60 days.
Other states’ thresholds kick in faster, including 23 that want you to pony up on day one. And still other states have a wage-based threshold for taxation, while nine states have no income tax at all.
Some states have reciprocal agreements with one another. Basically, if your resident state has this pact with the one where you work, you won’t have to pay in both jurisdictions. For instance, if you live in Maryland but work in the District of Columbia, you only need to worry about having taxes withheld for Maryland.
Meanwhile, there also are a handful of states — Connecticut, Delaware, Nebraska, New York and Pennsylvania — that impose a “convenience of employer” test for remote workers. If your company is located in one of those states, you generally will pay taxes there unless your remote location is due to your employer needing you to relocate.
