The Argument to Tax Work-from-Home Benefits | Hacker News Reader

The Argument to Tax Work-from-Home Benefits

bloomberg.com

1 pointsjs70076 comments

Employees who work from home provide a benefit to their employer not the other way around.

LOL, I assume they are paid = a high degree of mutuality.

Employees who work from home provide at minimum, a work space. Likely a phone, internet, power, potentially a computer and printer. Just to start.

The counter argument in favor of extra tax on remote employees is what "employees seem to like it, so let's tax it"?

Usually the company will provide a computer (if needed) and will re-imburse the employee for the space cost, so it is not taxable. The employee pays taxes, but some states want to state tax money the employee earns if the move involved a move into a taxing state. Often the employee quite likes it and if the work can be measured as satisfactory = employer happy at the level of performance - the employee may or may not be happy. Local restaurants, landlords, gas stations etc, are often the biggest losers. We started using work from home and secure cloud data access 2 years ago and all employees as well as the bosses were very happy with this. Then along came Covid and for us it was easy.

I don't know a single employer that pays employees for their home office space, nor one that pays for internet or power a desk or proper chair or office phone number.

I do know several however that will provide only a Chromebook or crappy "corporate laptop" but not a proper workstation.

You do realize this is not a discussion about "out of state" taxes or the general merit of work from home. This is specifically about the appropriateness of employees who work from home being levied "extra" taxes.

The europeans never pass a chance for taxes - I agree. It is a dangerous idea that should be stamped out. My firm provided a good desk top, with dual screens, however, I do not process video or need a high end work-station. It is a case by case thing, I think. London(UK) companies pay a London premium that they withdraw when you work out of that town. I can see various valid salary factors that wil be adjusted if you work from home. Many vacant offices are going to come on the market and a new salary balance will be struck based on equivalencies. Working from a far lower cost location with zero commute has value in it's own right, so many people will choose lower wages for those reasons and may well have more $$ in their pockets at days end.

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