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Comment by Joof | Hacker News Reader

What does your company do if the employee is entirely Nomadic? Officially I live somewhere, but I never go there.

Maybe pretend it's not happening, no idea. Societal rules don't seem to work well with people who are more nomadic—the settlers seem to have won

I feel this comment so deeply. I spent all of my late teens and early 20s doing music in the US. I lived in a van or on a bus and only went ‘home’ for a few weeks consecutively at the most, and that was maybe three times a year. The world is viewed in a fundamentally different nature by those who are nomadic, and the rest of society has a very tough time dealing with those nomads.

Yea, I lived in East Africa for a bit and learned a lot about the struggles between the nomadic pastoralists and settled farmers. Also in Europe with the Roma people and their struggles.

I mean, I guess nomadic vs settled is probably a spectrum, with most of us not falling at anywhere near yhe extreme poles. Yet, yes, I feel you.

Legal Address? It's a good question. Who knows, with modern technology it could be updated daily.

... I shuttered at that thought.

Sounds like masochistic performance art waiting to happen.

Your place of domicile (a tax and legal concept) cannot be updated daily.

How frequently can it be updated?

I moved from PA to NM last year. From PA's perspective, PA remains your domicile until you take steps to permanently establish a new residence somewhere else. Other states may or may not take the same position.

Those steps include, but are not limited to: buying/renting property as a primary residence, registering a car, registering to vote.

Should it be updated?

South Dakota lets you establish tax domicile with no state income tax instantly. You need to show a receipt from a hotel or campground that you spent a night in the state. You also get a new driver's license and open a bank account. That's it. What stops me from setting up a remote workstation in SD, logging into work through VPN from there, and living wherever I want? :)

Once the pandemic lessens, I am switching my domicile from California to SD and semi-retiring away from Bay Area. I will have a legal presence and a computer in that area, but I will not live there.

There could be a business opportunity in setting up remote workstations in high rent areas to comply with these requirements.

Multiple states can consider you to be domiciled there, and you are liable for state taxes in each.

There is no constitutional protection that prevents you from having to pay multiple resident state taxes, though in practice, it doesn't happen often. NY is notorious for claiming people are still residents after they have left-one factor is spending any part of 183 days in state, but another is intent and emotional attachment.

Typically when you live in another state for 3 or more months you “establish residency”. Not declaring this properly on your state income taxes is tax evasion.

Lying to your company about residency and tax evasion to receive more money is fraud.

So it sounds like you’re going to have an interesting time either committing fraud or flying back and forth constantly to pull this off?

I bet if you were hired by a company while living in a lower COL city for market rates in that city, and then moved to the Bay area you’d be advocating for getting a COL adjustment to afford Bay area rents.

Considering fraud and tax evasion schemes to avoid the exact same adjustment in the other direction is ridiculous and selfish. If everyone did what you did housing rates would skyrocket in those cities like the Bay area and create even more housing crisis and displacement.

they should hire you under different contract where you are responsible for your taxes, not the employer, something like freelance contractor, not familiar with US law

lowering salaries because company must adjust your taxes is lame excuse

They’re lowering salary for a different reason.

But you have to tell them what state you have residency so they can withhold income taxes for the right state and not be liable for tax evasion.

You’re conflating two separate things

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