Lying about address?

[Anonymous]

I have the ability to work from home anywhere in our state but due to tax implications and insurance issues my employer will not let me move out of state to work. How bad would it be to move to a state over but use my sister-in-law's address as my own?
Are there legal implications I am not thinking about? She lives close to the state border so not a huge geographical distance from where I will actually be.
I looked for jobs in the state. We are moving too but have not found anything with the PTO package and pay that I currently have. Plus I actually really like my current job. I've been there for 12 years.

[Anonymous]

You’re going to run into issues with state tax filings.

[Anonymous]

You cant out of state. Major tax issues.

[Anonymous]

You’d have to claim the out of state home as a secondary residence and your SIL’s home as primary, and pay taxes accordingly.

[Anonymous]

It’s a terrible idea. For the same reason your employer would have a ri Ken with it, you’ll likely have a problem too. You have to pay state taxes in the state where you live. Also, your paycheck will deduct from the state you indicate. Will you pay taxes separately to the 2nd state?

[Anonymous]

If it's a larger employer they might notice if you're logging in from a different state. If it's a smaller employer you can probably get away with it. You might have to use your sister's address for other things too though like your license and car registration. Maybe that gets complicated, maybe not.

[Anonymous]

BTW, if your employer catches you working from a location they specifically declined to approve, they can discipline/fire you.

- Employment law attorney handling a case right now where the fed employee claimed locality pay for a place she was not working from

[Anonymous]

Bad idea. Can you make your case to your employer about moving? It seems like it would be easier for them to allow a current remote employee to move than to put time and money into recruiting, hiring, and training a new employee.

[Anonymous]

This would be grounds for termination at my current company. Can't you just move to your SIL's town?

[Anonymous]

Where I work, IT can see where we’ve logged in from. I don’t see how you’re going to get away with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where I work, IT can see where we’ve logged in from. I don’t see how you’re going to get away with this.

I think it's less a question of can they figure this out than will they go through the effort to do so. I know two people that are doing this and they are each using a friend's address in Texas to avoid paying state income taxes in their new state. Obviously I don't endorse dodging taxes but they've been doing this for about two years and their employer apparently doesn't know or doesn't care. That said, if they are ever looking to downsize or for a pretext to fire you this would be low hanging fruit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW, if your employer catches you working from a location they specifically declined to approve, they can discipline/fire you.

- Employment law attorney handling a case right now where the fed employee claimed locality pay for a place she was not working from

It could be because they are not legally allowed to operate out of that state. Friend ran into this when she got WFH job for traveler insurance company based in VA & she is in VA. The business cannot legally operate in the state she had hoped to spend extended time so she can't even work from that state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad idea. Can you make your case to your employer about moving? It seems like it would be easier for them to allow a current remote employee to move than to put time and money into recruiting, hiring, and training a new employee.

I don't think that's necessarily true because the problem with allowing one person to do something like this (aside from the obvious that other employees may want the same flexibility) is that employers who don't allow interstate telework are being cautious about things like - state tax withholding laws, civil rights laws that may vary in the other state regarding definitions of protected classes, liability laws, workmen's comp laws, intellectual property laws, and any other laws that vary from state to state. Employers that have mechanisms for interstate telework have thought about these issues and perhaps require signed waivers from the employees or have attornesy who researched the laws of the relevant states so know how they would apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where I work, IT can see where we’ve logged in from. I don’t see how you’re going to get away with this.

I think it's less a question of can they figure this out than will they go through the effort to do so. I know two people that are doing this and they are each using a friend's address in Texas to avoid paying state income taxes in their new state. Obviously I don't endorse dodging taxes but they've been doing this for about two years and their employer apparently doesn't know or doesn't care. That said, if they are ever looking to downsize or for a pretext to fire you this would be low hanging fruit.

That's a totally different situation - OP's employer DOES care, so much in fact that the employer has already made a rule about it.

OP, I think this could work short-term, but the truth is that you actually need to appear to be in your employer's state. That's not a fiction you can keep up long-term with taxes, banking, drivers license, car registration, not to mention your IP address - that your employer can monitor anytime you are online working.

[Anonymous]

You should talk to your employer about becoming an independent contractor. You'll lose the PTO and employer-paid benefits, but could negotiate salary to compensate.

Otherwise, you need to find a place to live in your current state.