Live in California but work for Illinois-based company
California and New York are very aggressive when it comes to revenue and taxes. As such, mere having an employee in these States creates a nexus and tax/filing liability for the company. @Adam Wood mentioned sales tax - that is correct. Having an employee in the State of California will require collecting sales tax for CA, and if until now your employer didn't have to - that would be a good enough reason to refuse your request. In addition to sales taxes, there's also the issue of corporate filings (they will now have to file paperwork in CA and pay CA franchise taxes just because of you) and payroll taxes (which are pretty high in CA and NY). It will also subject the to CA/NY/WA labor laws, which are more liberal than in most of the other States. Washington doesn't have personal income tax, but does have corporate income tax and sales tax, so I'm guessing the reasons to exclude this State are the same. They might be concerned with having to charge sales tax in California if they have a single employee in California, creating a nexus situation with CA. If that's the case, or even if there is some other issue, you might be able to switch from being a W2 employee to being a 1099 independent contractor. There's a host of additional issues this could cause, but it alleviate the nexus problem (if THAT is the problem). Here's a terrible solution you can bring up, but shouldn't do under any circumstances: offer to set up a mailing address in an allowed State, and give your company plausible deniability with regards to your legal residence. Obviously, this is a terrible idea, but exploring that option with your employer would help you suss out what the actual objection is. Ultimately, anything said here about the reason is just conjecture. You need to talk to the decision maker(s) about the real reason behind the denial. Then you can talk through solutions. Also - don't forget that you can get another job. If you are serious about a future with your girlfriend, you should put that relationship ahead of your current employment comfort and security. If you are willing to walk away from your position, you are in a much better situation to negotiate.
"The decision whether this test is or is not met seems to be highly dependent on the specific situation of the employer and the employee.  I think that you won't find a lot of general references meeting your needs. There is such a thing as a ""private ruling letter,"" where individuals provide specific information about their situation and request the IRS to rule in advance on how the situation falls with respect to the tax law.  I don't know a lot about that process or what you need to do to qualify to get a private ruling.  I do know that anonymized versions of at least some of the rulings are published.  You might look for such rulings that are close to your situation. I did a quick search and found two that are somewhat related: As regards your situation, my (non-expert) understanding is that you will not pass in this case unless either (a) the employer specifies that you must live on the West Coast or you'll be fired, (b) the employer would refuse to provide space for you if you moved to Boston (or another company location), or (c) you can show that you could not possibly do your job out of Boston.  For (c), that might mean, for example, you need to make visits to client locations in SF on short-notice to meet business requirements.  If you are only physically needed in SF occasionally and with ""reasonable"" notice, I don't think you could make it under (c), although if the employer doesn't want to pay travel costs, then you might still make it under (a) in this case." Depends. If Levandowski(the engineer who essentially went from Waymo to Uber) signed a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement before leaving, Google could sue Uber in tort for interfering with the contract. Don't know the specifics of the story, but it really comes down to whether or not he signed those two forms. I do NOT know the full answer but I know here are some important factors that you need to consider : Do you have a physical location in the United States? Are you working directly from Canada? With a office/business location in the United States your tax obligation to the US is much higher. Most likely you will owe some to the state in which your business is located in Payroll Tax : your employer will likely want to look into Payroll tax, because in most states the payroll tax threshold is very low, they will need to file payroll tax on their full-time, part-time employees, as well as contractor soon as the total amount in a fiscal year exceeds the threshold Related to No.1 do you have a social security number and are you legally entitled to working in the States as an individual. You will be receiving the appropriate forms and tax withholding info Related to No.3 if you don't have that already, you may want to look into how to obtain permissions to conduct business within the United States. Technically, you are a one person consulting service provider. You may need to register with a particular state to obtain the permit. The agency will also be able to provide you with ample tax documentations.  Chances are you will really need to piece together multiple information from various sources to resolve this one as the situation is specific. To start, look into consulting service / contractor work permit and tax info for the state your client is located in. Work from state level up to kick start your research then research federal level, which can be more complex as it is technically international business service for Canada-US I don't see any Chicago comments, which seems weird as it has access to both Atlantic Ocean/east coast shipping via St lawrence seaway and the Gulf/south via the Mississippi. One of the largest airports in the world in O'hare (not to mention Midway). It's the economic hub of the midwest, Google already has a large operation here along with many other tech/industrial companies. "Oh I see, as a ""Chicagoan""? Well I guess if you were from Detroit, Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, Jefferson County, Harrisburg, Central Falls, or Boise County you might understand why it might be necessary to force a government entity to actually back up their retirement plans with real investments." It's not so much about time but about intent.  If your intent is to move there permanently, it would be when you arrive in the state for the purposes of living there (i.e. not from a while before that when you went to check a place out or for an interview).  I believe that most (if not all) states expect you to get a Driver's License from that state within 30-days of moving there. Something like a Driver's License or State ID would be proof of your residency.  These things vary greatly from state to state, so you'd have to research particular states.  Or find someone who's done that already. A bit of searching, specifically for Texas, brought me to this forum thread: If you / he wish to establish residency here -- here being Texas -- get a Texas Driver's License and Voter Registration here. Government issued ID with a Texas address is pretty much bulletproof defense against being found to be a resident of elsewhere. Your battle, if there is one, will not be with Texas, but with your present home of record state and/or local government if there are income taxes associated with having been a resident there during the tax year. Which brings up the other question: You would need to make sure that California does not have some provision that would cause you issues.  (This isn't so much a case of income from a company in the state as it about capital gains, but it is still prudent to check.) "If you ""do business"" in a state, then you need to register your business in that state.  I suspect that you have a misconception of what it means to ""do business"" in a state.  If you are a 1-man shop, then you very likely are not doing business in any state except the one state where you work. Examples of when you are doing business in a state include having an office in the state or having employees in the state.  Merely selling something to a client in that state is NOT enough to be doing business in the state. Each state is different, but unless you are doing something that is, in some sense, close to having an office or an employee in a state, then you have nothing to worry about.  For example, if you regularly travel to a state to do work for a client then it is possible that you could be doing business in that state (I have no idea if that would be sufficient in any state).  But if you are just working out of your basement running a website, then you are only doing business in your own state." "The problem with your math is that your assumptions are all sorts of fucked up. You have him living in a 700 sqft apartment in Sunnyvale but paying $1400 in Indianapolis (I live here). $1400 in Indy is enough to rent a 3 bedroom house, or a 3 bedroom luxury apartment downtown. And a front end dev isn't going to be making 70K in Indy with 5 years experience. That's the average of salaried employees in Indy, web developers make more, my friend's starting webdev job out of a no name local college here was 70K. With 5 years experience you can find a job paying a lot more than that. Your salary scale is automatically going to be skewed since tech pays more and a greater percentage of the population is going to be in tech in SF than Indy. The dude would probably be making more like 90k if he was competent. And paying $500 a month for a 700 sqft apartment. If he had some money for a down payment, for $1400 a month he could afford the mortgage of like a 300K house, and could actually be putting that money into an investment rather than sinking that money into rent. Good luck buying a house in SF for less than 1M. But for sport, let's assume he doesn't buy a home and is renting a small apartment. So he is now paying only $6000 a year for housing and is making 20K more than your estimate which after taxes is like what, at least 16K in take home money, plus the 11K he is paying less in rent than you assumed? So he is actually making 27K more than you are assuming in your math, and now instead of making 20K less a year than he would in SF, he is making 7K more. Again, if he was smart and bought a house, which isn't possible for 99% of people in SF, the monetary gain isn't even close.  And don't get me started on the ""perks"" of California. People from Cali all seem to be under the assumption that things like nature, restaurants, and entertainment only exist in California." "Its not for US citizens - its for US residents. If the US considers you as a tax resident - you'll be treated the same as a US citizen, regardless of your immigration status. The question is very unclear, since it is not mentioned whether your US sourced income ""from the Internet"" is sales in the US, sales on-line, services you provide, investments, or what else. All these are treated differently. For some kinds of US-sourced income you should have paid taxes in the US already, regardless of where you physically reside. For others - not. In any case, if you become US tax resident, you'll be taxed on your worldwide income, not only the $10K deposited in the US bank account. ALL of your income, everywhere in the world, must be declared to the US government and will be taxed. You should seek professional advice, before you move to the US, in order to understand your responsibilities, liabilities and rights. I suggest looking for a EA/CPA licensed in California and experienced with taxation of foreigners (look for someone in the SF or LA metropolitan areas). Keep in mind that there may be a tax treaty between the US and your home country that may affect your Federal (but not California) taxes." "Ed: Saw your comment, thank you. The short answer (a rough simplification), seems to be that you pay PA income tax for income made in PA. You pay IL income tax for income made in IL, not income made across both states. And you make sure the IL amount paid is correct via a credit calculated on Schedule CR. It looks to me (bear with me, I am no expert on tax law in IL, PA, or in general, so consult a professional for ""good"" advice :), like you basically do this on Schedule CR: It looks like there may be some more pertinent info on Publication 111, so that may potentially change the math a bit too. This check is 2014 income, during which you are a resident of IL. It's income from a PA employer. You must file a tax return in PA regardless, since you ""earned income in PA"". Did your former employer withhold PA income taxes on this particular paycheck? I'm not seeing where it says you should not include tax withheld; could you please point that out? Perhaps they mean you should only include tax actually considered ""due"" on the PA tax return. From IL's Schedule CR instructions: What is the purpose of Schedule CR?   Schedule CR, Credit for Tax Paid to Other States, allows you to   take a credit for income taxes you paid to other states on income   you received while a resident of Illinois. You are allowed this credit   only if you filed a required tax return with the other state. You must   use information from the tax return you filed with the other state to   complete Schedule CR.   ...    What taxes qualify for the credit?   Taxes that qualify for the credit are income taxes you paid to another   state of the United States," Would that be the same retirement funding requirements that every business has to fulfill by law?  Oh right, they should be free to completely screw their retirement programs like CalPers and Illinois by under investing and assuming they will get 8% returns every year. And what's the cost-of-living in Silicon Valley?  How long are the work-days, how abundant the vacation time?  Most of the publicly-held companies there apparently have solid sources of revenue, but for all too many start-up companies, where's the value proposition?  As I've learned from first-hand experience, a high salary isn't as great as it sounds in an expensive area to live, and Silicon Valley is up there with New York, Washington DC, and Boston for the *really* expensive areas of America.  &gt;“Companies like Color are being given a second, third, or fourth shot at the game because it’s a big game,” says Bill Nguyen, Color’s chief executive officer. “The prizes are pretty darn huge. There are fundamental changes happening in information because of Facebook and mobile devices.”   HOW DOES THIS NOT SOUND LIKE A SPECULATIVE BUBBLE TO PEOPLE? "Even though you will meet the physical presence test, you cannot claim the FEIE because your tax home will remain the US. From the IRS: Your tax home is the general area of your main place of business, employment, or post of duty, regardless of where you maintain your family home. Your tax home is the place where you are permanently or indefinitely engaged to work as an employee or self-employed individual. Having a ""tax home"" in a given location does not necessarily mean that the given location is your residence or domicile for tax purposes.   ...   You are not considered to have a tax home in a foreign country for any period in which your abode is in the United States. However, your abode is not necessarily in the United States while you are temporarily in the United States. Your abode is also not necessarily in the United States merely because you maintain a dwelling in the United States, whether or not your spouse or dependents use the dwelling.   ...   The location of your tax home often depends on whether your assignment is temporary or indefinite. If you are temporarily absent from your tax home in the United States on business, you may be able to deduct your away from home expenses (for travel, meals, and lodging) but you would not qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. If your new work assignment is for an indefinite period, your new place of employment becomes your tax home, and you would not be able to deduct any of the related expenses that you have in the general area of this new work assignment. If your new tax home is in a foreign country and you meet the other requirements, your earnings may qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion.   If you expect your employment away from home in a single location to last, and it does last, for 1 year or less, it is temporary unless facts and circumstances indicate otherwise. If you expect it to last for more than 1 year, it is indefinite.   If you expect your employment to last for 1 year or less, but at some later date you expect it to last longer than 1 year, it is temporary (in the absence of facts and circumstances indicating otherwise) until your expectation changes. For guidance on how to determine your tax home refer to Revenue Ruling 93-86. Your main place of business is in the US and this will not change, because your business isn't relocating. If you are intending to work remotely while you are abroad, you should get educated on the relevant laws on where you are going. Most countries don't take kindly to unauthorized work being performed by foreign visitors. And yes, even though you aren't generating income or involving anyone in their country, the authorities still well may disapprove of your working. My answer to a very similar question on Expatriates." "Did it show just your address, or was your name on it as well?   You didn't share how long you've lived at the address either, so it makes me wonder whether a former tenant is the one who filed that paperwork.  It's also possible that someone used your address when making a filing.  Whether that was deliberate or accidental is hard to discern, as is their intent if it was intentional. It could be accidental -- someone picked ""CA"" for California when they meant to pick ""CO"" for Colorado or ""CT"" for Connecticut...These things do happen.  It can't make you feel any better about the situation though. You should be able to go online to the California Secretary of State's website (here) and look up everything filed by the LLC with the state.  That will show who the founders were and everything else that is a matter of public record on the LLC.  At the very least, you can obtain the registered agent's name and address for the LLC, which you can then use to contact them and ask why your address is listed as the LLC's business address. Once you have that info, you can then contact the Secretary of State and tell them it isn't you so they can do whatever is necessary to correct this. This doesn't sound like a difficult matter to clear up, but it's important to do your homework first and gather as much information as you can before you call the state.  Answering ""I don't know"" won't get you very far with them compared to having the best answers you can about where the mistake started. I hope this helps. Good luck!" "Designed by Apple in California, manufactured in China. At this point in time Apple has more employees in the US than in the past. They never really moved jobs overseas, mostly they just spun up work overseas because that's where all of the components of the supply chain were. When you say ""hey... I want to start cranking out devices. I need to know how fast you can turn if there's a design change late in the pre-production stage"" and the best answers you get are from makers in China, that's where your work goes."