Individual Home-Work Assignments for State Taxes

Abstract

The surge in work-from-home arrangements brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic threatens serious disruptions to state tax systems. Billions of dollars are at stake at this pivotal moment as states grapple with where to assign income earned through these remote work arrangements for tax purposes: the worker’s home or the employer’s location? States intent on modernizing their income tax laws by assigning such income to the employer’s location have faced persistent challenges on both constitutional and policy grounds.

This Article provides a vigorous defense against such challenges. The Supreme Court has long interpreted the Constitution to be deferential to state tax actions; new laws for the age of remote work surely satisfy constitutional demands. Moreover, assigning income from remote work to the employer’s location is more equitable than assigning the income to the worker’s home, justifying modernization efforts from a policy perspective. The solution to this home-work assignment problem is evident: the states must revise their tax laws to face the evolving nature of work.

Keywords: taxation, multistate taxation, income taxation, income sourcing

JEL Classification: K34