[jderose]

I work for a large company in NY state. They have many employees that work from home but travel for the company on a regular basis. They have indicated that for each day we work in a state other than our home (Georgia) we must file non-resisdent workdays. Since my husband and I work and travel for the same company we got in the mail yesterday over 15 W-2 forms for income tax. Which I assume means we have to file for each of those separate states.

Is my company correct? If so is there a loophole or specific guidelines, this is just way over the top.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Your company has a screwed-up payroll department!

The LETTER of the law specifies that income earned within any state IS subject to that state's income tax. However, the driving consideration in declaring income for that state is the AMOUNT of income earned.

Example: Say you live in Ohio, but work a total of 15 days in Georgia, earning $200 per day for a total of $3,000. A total of $40 was withheld for GA and sent to the GA Department of Revenue. Given Georgia's 6% tax rate, that means $180 goes to Georgia, right?

WRONG!

The combination of the personal exemption and the pro-rated standard deduction will completely offset ANY tax liability owed to Georgia.

Unfortunately, you would have to file a Georgia tax return as a non-resident to get that $40 back. That is an unnecessary burden on both you as the taxpayer and the Georgia DoR, who has to process the return and cut the refund check.

A simple phone call to the Georgia DoR would have told your company what the tipping point would have been to require withholding for the state.

Except in cases where there are high-earning individuals (such as major league baseball players or NBA basketball players or CEOs of Fortune 500 companies), requiring business people who visit a variety of states on business to pay taxes to those states is a waste of time and money for everyone involved.