The company's headquarters is in New York, but I worked for them from another state. Sorry if that wasn't clear. So New York State taxed non-residents for business trips there. My job didn't require travel, so this wasn't an issue for me (but was for some others in my department).
LOL Why do you torment yourself with these useless thoughts? Just keep your mouth shut and don't tell how much you're making (especially on this board) and you'll be just fine. (I tell ya, some of these folks have way too much time on their hands, geez.)
Even better...he shouldn't tell them where you're located at on vacation when you made those trades. If you're a resident of Florida and go to another state for 1 week, 1 month or a few months...they are not going to check your internet data to determine where you were at when you made those trades. In contrast, if you're a resident of Florida and you also own a home in N.Y. even though you're only there a month or few months out of the year in which you also trade...that's an entirely different story because of your home ownership in N.Y. Regardless, its the state you used as your residence when you open your broker account that will be the determining factor. Thus, if you're now living in Florida but you had originally open your trading account with a N.Y. address...make sure you contact your broker to change your address from N.Y. to Florida...same with your other financial accounts. Some people try to be sneaky and live in one state with lower state taxes while keeping their original address with another state that has higher state taxes. Those people are liable for the state taxes in that higher tax state where they still maintain an address for their financial records. I know a guy that travels a lot in the U.S. and internationally because of his other job. He usually trades from a laptop while travelling. He was in 8 different states this year and in Europe. It does not mean he needs to pay state taxes in 8 different states and the country he was in for one month. wrbtrader
Actually, if you're wealthy and you own homes in different states or countries...usually its something to talk about if you're also a trader with a large trading account especially towards the end of the year or nearing tax time. Then again, most wealthy people in that situation have hired a good tax accountant to figure out things like this for them. Yet, I've seen these types of questions before here at ET or other forums. The person asking the question will not mention something like that they've only been living in the state with lower taxes for a few months, still own property and financial accounts in the state with higher taxes...stuff like that. wrbtrader
Just to give a counter-example: I have a friend who makes 7 figures every year, it's just him and a few Philippines-based assistants. He was audited a couple of years ago and they went down to IP connections to his servers to figure out if he owed taxes to a particular state. Young guy but that process gave him grey hairs. Pathetic how the government parasites come down on a producer.
I've been thru a nasty audit before in two different countries but not the same year. An audit will give anyone grey hairs. Also, gotta be careful about what you say or share online too about your financial situation. If you don't know them...do not share info with them unless they're the tax folks from the government. Today's environment, even brokers are using your online associations and what you say online to determine if you should be paying professional fees (expensive) or individual fees (cheaper)...several threads here at ET this year about that particular issue. By the way, thanks for the tip about them checking IP connections for where you were trading from. Its the first time I've ever heard that before although I'm not surprised especially if he's paying those assistants to do work for him from another country. wrbtrader
Oh sorry it wasn't for trading, but it was for an online business. My bad. But yes, I've been through a nasty audit as well.
This is the key point. State tax liability isn't cut and dry, it's the sum of all the things that show that you may be a resident of the state in question. So you've never lived in NY, don't own a house or any property there, and have never been liable for NY taxes and you go "on vacation" for a month there while earning 1/12 of your annual income doing what you normally do for your job? Almost certainly not liable but doesn't hurt not to be an asshat to the investigator who gets randomly assigned to audit you if it happens. Oh, I forgot that I bought a car while I was there and it was so much easier to just register it in NY under my name instead of remotely register it in FL. Well now you're a lot closer to that edge, aren't you. Oh, forgot to mention that you lived your whole life in NY and just moved to FL recently and still own your family home in NY? Now that "vacation" is pretty much going to be declared "living in" NY. The problem, as @wrbtrader points out, is that pretty much anyone asking this question is generally withholding a bunch of relevant additional information that completely changes the answer. As an aside, you may have more of an issue in the "low tax" states like FL. Turns out that they aren't "low tax", just no income tax, which means they earn their income from other taxes. I was audited by FL despite not having lived there for 15 years and having spent only 5 days there during the year in question. Why? I had transited the ICW from Miami to GA in my boat and had to prove the boat hadn't been there more than 20 days during the calendar year or else I would be subject to sales tax on the entire value of the boat. Not a difficult audit, I just signed an affidavit and provided my customs clearing in documentation and a gas receipt in GA dated inside the requisite time period, but they definitely have some kind of network to detect if your boat's spent even a day in FL, match it to their records, find you in another state, and audit you. And that's a 20 day limit!