united-states mail tax-law
Is it against the law to use someone else&#39;s address for a work from home position? How does it affect taxes?
<p>Suppose that a work from home position includes as one of its requirements that the employee live in Kansas. someone (lets call the person A for applicant) lives in Missouri, but has a relative (B) who lives in Kansas. If A gives B's address with B's permission, is A violating any law? What consequences are possible?</p>

<p>If a would be employee simply lies, and claims to live in one state, such as Kansas when s/he actually lives in another, such as Missouri there are several possible negative consequences.</p>
<p>First of all, the employer, if the deception comes to light, might well consider this grounds to fire the employee and provide a bad reference. They might also report this as termination for misconduct, and cause the employee to forfeit unemployment payments.</p>
<p>While employed, the company would presumably be sending state income tax payments to the wrong state, and not to the state where the employee actually lives. This would probably cause the employee to be in violation of the tax laws of the actual state of residence, which probably require proper withholding payments to be made.</p>
<p>Laws and company policies for health insurance coverage and other benefits may well be different between the two states, and the employee might be considered to have claimed improper benefits. This could be construed as insurance fraud, or &quot;material and misrepresentation&quot;.</p>
<p>The Federal IRS would possibly notice a mismatch between the employee's address on its records and the address listed on the employer's withholding payments and information returns. This might cause a problem with the withholding payments being properly credited to the employee's tax account.</p>
<p>However, if the employee can arrange to actually stay with his or her relative in the desired state for part of the year, it might be possible to establish a legitimate part-year residence there. Depending on the employer's reasons for demanding an employee have a residence in a particular state, this might suffice. Many people live part of the year in one state and part in another, and tax forms and other legal arrangements for handling such cases are reasonably routine.</p>
<p>It is quite unusual for an employer to insist that an employee be a resident of a particular state, particularly for a work-from-home position. Some government jobs require the employee to be a resident of a particular state, or even a particular city or county. It might be worth finding out <strong>why</strong> the employer lists this as a requirement. There might be a legitimate way to fulfill the condition. But lying is likely to have negative results.</p>
