The Wall Street Journal reports (note: pay site) that the State of New York wants your tax revenue, even if you live in Tennessee:

“A telecommuter who lives out of state while working by computer for a New York employer must pay New York tax on his full income, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday in a case that could have wide implications in the growing practice.

The Court of Appeals ruled that computer programmer Thomas Huckaby, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., owed New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent working at the New York offices of the union for which he worked.”

And the victim even paid NY state tax on 25% of his income based on his being in the New York office 25% of the time — which seems to be the “right” answer. Right, that is, in that it makes sense — but of course, simplicity and common sense are not the objectives of state tax commissioners.

This attempt flies in the face of how state tax authorities treat highly paid athletes. When the Yankees play the Anaheim (oops, “Los Angeles area”) Angels, the New Yorkers get dinged by California for the percent of their pay “earned” locally. They don’t pay New York tax on that amount. Why doesn’t this apply to Mr. Huckaby?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2005 at 7:01 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.