> company needs to account for employee locations to avoid violating tax laws
Serious question: can some tax-savvy individual explain what the relevant tax laws are? How much could a worker's tax residence affect the corporation's tax liability?
If you live most of your days in Missouri, you are a Missouri resident and you need to pay Missouri state income taxes, and maybe local income taxes as well. If you/your company is paying California income tax instead, that's a problem for both of you.
And, if you live in a country that does not tax resident foreigners whose entire income is foreign, you pay no income tax at all. The only countries I know that do this cheaply are Costa Rica and Uruguay (the Bahamas have expensive requirements).
One technique is to not live anywhere more than six months but be a residency in one of those countries.
I haven't done this because I have kids and pets.. but it seems pretty awesome if you make a competitive salary (not Facebook!).
There are no bright lines in residency law in the USA. You can potentially reside in one state for five months and the other for seven but be domiciled in the former. This is an area where you really ought to rely on professional advice.
Many (most?) taxes are state and local, as most services are operated at the state and local level. The most obvious example that comes to my mind is unemployment. Each state has a different unemployment program, and every employer must pay in a certain amount for each employee in the state.
In addition to the domestic state payroll/income tax issues mentioned by others, it's almost certain FB is also talking about the risk of creating foreign permanent establishments of the FB US entity from an international tax perspective.
Serious question: can some tax-savvy individual explain what the relevant tax laws are? How much could a worker's tax residence affect the corporation's tax liability?