Submitted by pbrontap t3_ycir70 in newhampshire
100% remote from NH, for a company in Mass do you pay Mass income tax?
Submitted by pbrontap t3_ycir70 in newhampshire
100% remote from NH, for a company in Mass do you pay Mass income tax?
What law is this?
Just the days you physically work in MA.
Not true, as evident by my recalled tax refund. NH actually took MA to court for just this and lost.
My understanding is they got rid of the temporary Covid rules to allow you to only pay on days you commuted to MA
Dude I wish… I filed that on my Turbo Tax and they clawed back 20k in 1.5 weeks.
That's a nicely sized MA derived income you've got there...
Perfect aligning of the stars… worked for a small biotech with many stock options- bought out by Big Pharma and paid out in full without options maturing. I wish I pulled that in each year.
... Thats rough buddy... holy shit.
Interesting . Sounds like they did select some claims to Audit. I have always apportioned my days WFH and never been audited. Had some friends that claimed near 100% and didn’t get called in. Thought they would be . I only did 25% -50%though I am fully remote and was fine .
I wonder then if it just happened to be based on $ value. But that was crazy- literally 1.5 weeks before I got a letter in the mail from the gov’t.
Good luck! Would be interested in how you prepare and how it goes . Was talking to my buddy and he always apportioned a significant % of his time at home and wasn’t listed as WFH employee. My sense is maybe they flag you if they see a spike from one year to another ?
You might ask your company to reclassify your location. Mine did for me in August (now located “home-based”), so I’m no longer paying MA taxes. However, my company has had fully remote employees for decades, so they’re used to it.
Yeah I had the same thing done. I was hired as full remote however hr listed me as working in the office in NY. I was able to get this switched and no longer pay NY income taxes as they have the same deal as MA.
Hmm this company has just a small office and everyone works from home, always has for 15 plus years.
Started my job in August 2021. Went 100% remote back in June but hadn’t gone into the office since march.
Have your HR team/manager set your designation location to NH and confirm you are 100%. That’s what I did.
You’ll still need to track and pay for days you physically work in MA
Seeing a lot of “yes” answers which is concerning because that means people are needlessly giving their money away. As someone who has been audited twice for this exact circumstance the answer is 100% NO. As others have stated you only owe MA income tax for the days you are physically in MA.
Mass just changed the law and it went to the Supreme Court. If you are home due to pandemic, it is assumed you would be there. Not sure if that has changed with the president declaring the pandemic over.
That was a shitty thing mass did.
It was changed.
I live in NH with a company HQ'd in Boston. I don't pay Mass taxes and haven't for about 4 years since I stopped working even partially in MA. As others have noted, if you physically work in NH, you are not working in MA, so no taxes. If you aren't 100% remote, you owe MA taxes on the days you work in MA, but MA isn't coming after you for that one day you had in-town meetings per quarter.
When I was only partially remote, my payroll team would tax me at 40% of normal (I was 3 days remote) for MA.
No. Not if you're entirely remote. Your income taxes are based on the state you are physically in while working.
There are several exceptions: Connecticut, Delaware, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania. If you work for a company located in one of those states, you'll owe them income tax.
If you work some in NH and some in MA, you'll need to pay taxes for the amount you earned while in MA.
If your company does not typically have remote workers, you may find they are incorrectly withholding Massachusetts income tax. This can be a little confusing and might trick you into thinking you owe MA tax. There's an extra form you'll need to file.
Mass did have some oddness during the prior two tax years (2020 and 2021) due to emergency orders relating to COVID.
More info at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-gross-adjusted-gross-and-taxable-income-for-nonresidents
As always, consult a professional, and don't trust strangers on the internet.
If they classify you as remote with a non-MA work location, no. If they don't do that, yes.
You only pay taxes to the state where the work physically took place. Unless there’s some reciprocity agreement between NH and MA, you only pay NH taxes.
Fyi this isn't the case for all state (regardless of repricocity ...but most. Source. Disgruntled tax payer
My biggest concern is all the biotech\bigtech yuppies are going to flock to NH for the tax break then vote it out of existence and make it just another MA suburb.
I'm planning on buying property in NH specifically to stop losing a chunk of my income to support bullshit in MA.
It depends. Where is your work location listed on your W2? If it's MA then you pay Mass taxes. If it's NH (your home) then you don't.
For 100% remote, unless your payroll handles it, you will have MA taxes taken out. You do not, however, owe any MA taxes. So if you're 100% remote and have any MA taxes taken out you'll get all of those back when you file.
Yup, 100% remote. No MA taxes taken out.
^this
As long as you claim it, it won’t happen automatically
I’m in Maine, not New Hampshire but I worked remotely for a company based in Boston — they applied for a Maine tax ID and paid me with my Maine taxes withheld. You shouldn’t need to pay Massachusetts income tax if they set you up properly for remote work. Your taxes are based on where you physically sit while you work. When I used to occasionally travel to out of state offices, I’d have to file income taxes in multiple states. Once I had to file Connecticut income tax for spending three days in that office, because my company tracked it and listed multiple states on my W2.
I’m right on the border of Maine and am in the same situation with my company though they still want my headcount to come from our beautiful Cambridge office that I never visit . Been arguing for a while with my boss so been just trying to slowly increase my apportionment up to a net positive on my federal and state return cycle
If you state your office/work area as NH then no. This is usually in employment contract
When did you start this job?
There was an emergency reg that got promulgated at the start of the pandemic that basically said if you were splitting your time between the office in MA and your home in NH, whatever that split was before the pandemic was to continue. So that’s how I got screwed out of a couple thousand bucks. But then I changed jobs in 2021 and was fully remote from day. Office was still in Boston, but no income tax.
Not if you telework in NH. Then Mass can get fucked lol.
Only have to pay the days you’re physically working in Mass.
HB1097 (2022)
Relative to taxation of income of New Hampshire residents when working remotely for an out of state employer.
https://bills.nhliberty.org/bills/2022/HB1097
June 22, 2022: Signed by Governor Sununu 06/17/2022; Chapter 185; eff. 06/17/2022 HJ 14
MA stopped its emergency order but NH didn't care that they weren't doing it anymore and updated their legislation to prevent that sort of abuse in the future.
The state of NH took mass to Court over charging tax to people working from home In NH for MA companies
Yeah and the case was never heard. This is why the legislation was pushed forward because they couldn't get a hearing. This was in response to that if I have my timeline correct.
https://www.nhbr.com/new-hampshire-moves-to-shield-remote-workers-from-out-of-state-taxation/
Article is from March 17, 2022, legislation is June 17, 2022.
I 100% work from home for a MA based company. From March 2020 to September 2021 MA was taxing NH residents that were working from home due to the pandemic. As of September 2021 they stopped that emergency policy
I did have to fill out a form with my company saying I worked from home full time and lived in New Hampshire.
If you work in NH, you do not pay MA taxes. This includes remote work. If you sometimes work in MA, you only pay taxes for those days.
In general yes. If your company has an office in NH you can get around it.
This is false. State taxes have nothing to do with office locations and are only owed based on state residence of the worker and location where the work was performed. Remote workers pay tax where they physically work from, with very few exceptions.
To the people saying YES: Didn't Sununu sue to try and make sure this wasnt the case as the remote workers weren't piling onto the MA infrastructure? I hadn't heard any followup on it.
The supreme court declined to hear the case.
That is honestly ridiculous.
It's not. The State of New Hampshire was not injured.
I mean... with some mental gymnastics you could argue they were- funds that ostensibly would have gone to taxable items in NH (such as fast food) were instead redirected to another state improperly.
If I remember correctly, that was the Supreme Court's rationale as well.
The lawsuit was to address people who didn’t telework before the pandemic. MA created a law saying that if you didn’t telework before the pandemic (February 28, 2020) then you are not eligible to claim tax credit for working at home. This caused Sununu to sue MA, but he was unsuccessful. If you teleworked before the pandemic , you can claim the days you worked in Nh at home as a tax credit.
It's not necessarily a tax credit. In general, excluding pandemic emergency orders, if you don't physically work in a state or live in a state but the company you work for is in that state, you don't file taxes with that state and taxes are not withheld for that state.
Yes, but MA automatically takes state taxes out. Each year, people who work at home in Nh are eligible to apply for a tax credit.
MA should not take any taxes out automatically if the company has you set up correctly.
I work for the treasury department. I think they know how to set up payroll correctly lol.
> Generally speaking, when you pay a remote employee, you pay the local taxes in the state where the employee works.
> If your employee works in the same state your company is registered in, you’ll withhold state income taxes and pay state unemployment insurance (SUI) tax in this state. You may also need to withhold local income tax from their paycheck.
> What about remote employees working in different states?
> Your company will need to register with the tax agencies (state and possibly local) in each state it has remote employees. You may also need to register with the labor/unemployment agencies in each locale too.
> You’ll then be required to withhold taxes in the states where your employees work.
https://weworkremotely.com/how-to-set-up-payroll-and-taxes-for-remote-workers
No thank you
No, you would apportion your income when doing your taxes. So, basically, take all the "working days" and take whatever portion was NH or MA.
This is what I do; I’ve kept a list every year of the days I WFH, and when I file my Mass taxes, there’s a place to report this.
If you work in MA
You just have to file an MA NR/PT tax form, where you specify allocation based on days worked in MA. Done it for years, and MA sends back the refund. (Note that if you use TurboTax, the program tries to tell you this is not possible)
Have you tried reaching out to your employer to get yourself exempted with the passage of HB1097?
Yup
Nope. You pay taxes in the state where you live/work. If you didn't physically work in MA and don't live in MA then MA has no grounds to tax you.
If you live in NH and work in NH, then MA has no grounds to tax you.
If you live in NH and your W2 shows that you work in MA then you will generally be subject to the 5% MA income tax.
You claim you worked no days in MA as a nonresident and they are able to tax you for 0 out of 365 days. Tax liability has to do with your residence and physical work location. If your employer withholds for a state you never worked in, that's their clerical error and you are entitled to a refund of that amount.
My sister somehow has to pay it (she works in methuen) but gets a refund every year.
Yes. If your company is based out of Maine and you work in Mass they get to double dip too.
Supreme court ruled this illegal in 2015: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/18/supreme-court-double-taxation/22066863/
Looks like I got some emails to write with my lawyer.
[deleted]
Yero
Yes. We lost a huge lawsuit over the issue during the early part of the pandemic. Didn't we? I swear I read we lost the case (or at least by the surpreme court rejecting hearing it MA effectively won) but the conflicting answers are getting me confused...
We did. However, MA finally ended their "emergency" back in September, so since September, it's back to the way it was before the pandemic - You only have to pay taxes on the percentage of income earned while physically in MA. So for a fully remote worker, they don't have to pay MA taxes. If you're partially remote (I worked for a company in MA and went in once a week, aka 20% of the time) you only pay on that percentage. So I'd only owe income taxes on 20% of my income in MA between September 2021 to when I left that job a few months ago.
Oh, nice.
So if my paperwork says
"Work Location: Virtual Employee" do I have to pay?
No, not if you are 100% remote.
Some people in this thread are saying that you only need to pay for the days you are physically on-site in Mass, but I was told that I didn't even need to keep track unless I was in Mass >50% of the time. I think I was on-site three times this year and pay no income tax.
My experience is yes
Yes
Nope. You pay taxes in the state where you live/work. If you didn't physically work in MA and don't live in MA then MA has no grounds to tax you.
You have to pay since if you weren’t remote you would work in Mass
If you live in NH and work in MA you get a 1/4% back which is horse shit… I have no idea how it’s justified.. if all you do Is drive to the state for work and you pay for tolls and gas in the state in what way are your literal tax dollars serving you. It’s literally theft. Now I’m fine w paying unemployment taxes but where’s the rest going…
>If you live in NH and work in MA you get a 1/4% back which is horse shit… I have no idea how it’s justified..
I have no idea how theft is justified at all. let alone when they decide they only want to steal a quarter of it.
They steal 5+% of your pay, you only get a 1/4 percent back if you live in Nh
Taxachsetts sucking every last bit of taxes out of anyone they can. Lived there for 40 years and was so glad to leave.
Funny thing is that the total tax burden in MA isn't even top 10 in the US. Where do you live now?
NH
Our fair state!
Weirdly MA and NH are the two least taxed states in NE. I am surprised MA was so far down the list honestly. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494
NH
wow, i never would have guessed. Thanks for the link.
NHJack t1_itmslx9 wrote
I have done this. I live in NH. I worked in Mass for years until April 2020 paying Mass taxes. Mass passed a law to keep us paying Mass taxes even though we worked in NH. That law was retired over a year ago. I then had HR change my work state to NH and I have not given a dime to Mass since.