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Because the black box for legal purposes still presumes you are in-office. When you are remote, you are structured as working from your "home office" not anywhe

Because the black box for legal purposes still presumes you are in-office. When you are remote, you are structured as working from your "home office" not anywhere.

dheera 5y ago
Hm. What if my home office was a van, or a private jet? Couldn't one just structure it as a consultancy? I mean, if I hire a consultant to do something for me, I could just pay them through PayPal or Venmo or even Ethereum and wouldn't need to know where their office is. Onus is on them to be legally able to work and pay their taxes.
- wombatpm 5y ago
  That works because it’s a 1099 situation. But FICA, tax withholding and health care benefits are all tied up in your place of residence. Assuming you have a driver’s license and a voters registration, there is someplace you call home otherwise you are just a hobo
  - dheera 5y ago
    Hm. So what legal framework do "hobos" use? Surely it's not illegal to be homeless with a lot of money and skills. (a) Let's say you spend 1 week in each state for 50 weeks of the year. Where do you file your taxes? (b) Let's say you spend 1 week in each of 50 countries and work for AirBNB. You have no house, and no lease on a residence. Let's say it's mutual, e.g. you want to do this, and from their perspective, it's helping them because you're dogfooding their product. How do you deal with the legal side of it?
    - notch656a 5y ago
      The government generally doesn't recognize having no fixed address whatsoever. I was caught 20 miles from the nearest road once 'illegally existing' in a wilderness area in Oregon 'without a permit.' The officer of course had nowhere to take me because there was no prison or way to extract me out, we literally randomly found each other on a mountain. When I told him I had no address he literally had no way to enter that on his form. He told me it was impossible and he had to put _something_. I'm not sure what he ultimately wrote. Of course he let me go, because what the hell are you going to do someone 20 miles from the nearest road short of calling a helicopter. Having no address makes the government's brain explode.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      wrt a. My understanding is that it's not illegal but it basically makes it impossible to get government-issued ID, file taxes (which are legally required), open a bank account, get a credit card, etc. So as a practical matter you probably get some traveling mailbox type service--in a state with no income tax presumably. wrt b. You're already a citizen somewhere. You'll still need an address there. See above. Then it's up to you and, perhaps to some degree, your employer to get appropriate visas. That said, for one week stays, an Airbnb stay during which you work an unknown amount of time remotely as opposed to being a tourist seems pretty doable so long as you keep a low profile and the company is cool with it.
    - refurb 5y ago
      Look at California residency requirements. They don't care if you're out of state for most of the year. If your license is from CA, or maybe you vote there, or you opened a bank account years back in CA, they will send you a tax bill.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    And your home address is going to determine your default state/local tax situation in the US. (Though above certain thresholds you may be supposed to file multiple state taxes that are reconciled with each other. This mostly comes into play with business travel which companies are tracking.)

Because the black box for legal purposes still presumes you are in-office. When you are remote, you are structured as working from your "home office" not anywhere.

dheera 5y ago

Hm. What if my home office was a van, or a private jet? Couldn't one just structure it as a consultancy? I mean, if I hire a consultant to do something for me, I could just pay them through PayPal or Venmo or even Ethereum and wouldn't need to know where their office is. Onus is on them to be legally able to work and pay their taxes.

wombatpm 5y ago
That works because it’s a 1099 situation. But FICA, tax withholding and health care benefits are all tied up in your place of residence. Assuming you have a driver’s license and a voters registration, there is someplace you call home otherwise you are just a hobo
- dheera 5y ago
  Hm. So what legal framework do "hobos" use? Surely it's not illegal to be homeless with a lot of money and skills. (a) Let's say you spend 1 week in each state for 50 weeks of the year. Where do you file your taxes? (b) Let's say you spend 1 week in each of 50 countries and work for AirBNB. You have no house, and no lease on a residence. Let's say it's mutual, e.g. you want to do this, and from their perspective, it's helping them because you're dogfooding their product. How do you deal with the legal side of it?
  - notch656a 5y ago
    The government generally doesn't recognize having no fixed address whatsoever. I was caught 20 miles from the nearest road once 'illegally existing' in a wilderness area in Oregon 'without a permit.' The officer of course had nowhere to take me because there was no prison or way to extract me out, we literally randomly found each other on a mountain. When I told him I had no address he literally had no way to enter that on his form. He told me it was impossible and he had to put _something_. I'm not sure what he ultimately wrote. Of course he let me go, because what the hell are you going to do someone 20 miles from the nearest road short of calling a helicopter. Having no address makes the government's brain explode.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    wrt a. My understanding is that it's not illegal but it basically makes it impossible to get government-issued ID, file taxes (which are legally required), open a bank account, get a credit card, etc. So as a practical matter you probably get some traveling mailbox type service--in a state with no income tax presumably. wrt b. You're already a citizen somewhere. You'll still need an address there. See above. Then it's up to you and, perhaps to some degree, your employer to get appropriate visas. That said, for one week stays, an Airbnb stay during which you work an unknown amount of time remotely as opposed to being a tourist seems pretty doable so long as you keep a low profile and the company is cool with it.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Look at California residency requirements. They don't care if you're out of state for most of the year. If your license is from CA, or maybe you vote there, or you opened a bank account years back in CA, they will send you a tax bill.
- ghaff 5y ago
  And your home address is going to determine your default state/local tax situation in the US. (Though above certain thresholds you may be supposed to file multiple state taxes that are reconciled with each other. This mostly comes into play with business travel which companies are tracking.)