The term "nexus" in tax law describes a business's tax presence in a particular state or locality. "It will be extremely difficult for companies to fight an audit if they can't prove who is working from where and for how long." "Whether for compliance or for tax savings, it is going to be critical for companies to ensure they have the proper data to defend themselves in audits as governments everywhere have large fiscal deficits and are likely to be aggressive," said Nishant Mittal, senior vice president of Topia. "Most critical for employers is the need to manage remote-work policies once they've been implemented"-for instance, by requiring employees to self-report their work locations using online platforms. Now, every remote employee is a mobile employee," said Richard Tonge, global mobility services leader at professional services firm Grant Thornton. "The mobility landscape has shifted dramatically in the past 12 months. HR professionals were more likely to have worked in a different state or country (42 percent) but still struggled to report these workdays, suggesting that self-reporting is a challenge, even for those who know the rules.However, only 33 percent of employees said they reported all those days, and 24 percent admitted reporting none at all, even though 61 percent were aware of the tax compliance implications.93 percent of HR professionals were confident they know where the majority of their employees are working, and 78 percent were confident their employees self-report when working in another state or country.Employees may forget to report days worked outside their home state or country, for instance, while others appear to hide their location to avoid cost-of-living adjustments to their salaries, Topia noted. The potential advantages are too important to ignore."ĭespite increased support among employers for allowing remote work, many HR and finance departments are unprepared from a compliance standpoint. "As flexible work becomes a mainstay of business culture and talent strategy, HR and finance leaders must collaborate to make it work from a compliance perspective. "HR leaders recognize that remote and distributed work offers a competitive edge for attracting and retaining talent and for building diverse, highly skilled teams," said Topia's CEO Shawn Farshchi. The survey, which included 250 HR professionals, was conducted from Dec. and half in the U.K.-who work for international companies with at least 2,500 employees. Unless HR monitors where employees work-something 94 percent of employees say they would accept-their companies risk hefty tax penalties in the event of an IRS or state/municipal tax audit.Ģ021 Adapt or Lose the War for Talent survey, conducted on behalf of Topia, a talent mobility software company, polled 1,250 employees-half in the U.S. Consequently, their employers may have failed to withhold payroll taxes appropriately without realizing it. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 28 percent of employees have worked outside their home state or country but only one-third reported all those days to HR, a 2021 survey shows. Remote work has created tax compliance risks for employers.
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