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> I turned down an offer with Gitlab at the final stage because they adjusted the geo-compensation calculation in the late stages of the interview

If you took the job, and then moved, how would they know?

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Because they're not paying you in bitcoin or by brown paper envelope. There's federal, state & local city tax reporting for each employee, W-4's to fill, W-2's to mail, health care providers to setup (different in each state even within the same company), 401Ks etc. Unless you're going underground not only from your employer but also the tax authorities.

Now if you maintain your high-cost address but go tripping around the world, perhaps they wouldn't find out for a while.

Gitlab is offering much more than the cost of local taxes as a bonus for maintaining a "high-cost" address. And your federal taxes would be almost entirely refunded; they'd be withheld normally but you qualify for the foreign earned income deduction based purely on your location during the year.

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