State tax filing

@DanielV01 I get your point, so I'll provide a bit more practical guidance. You are right, more likely than not, taxpayers will get audited for this. Although its a pretty easy thing to represent yourself pro se for, and many people have come across this thread and done just that based on the guidance herein.

So what is likely to happen? When you file your return, it will more likely than not get selected for something called a desk audit. You will get a letter in the mail that requires you to substantiate your position and respond within 30 days. Write a letter, explain that you don't live in NYS, provide proof of any move if needed, and then that you didn't work in NYS during the tax year (feel free to copy and paste the references to law and cases throughout this thread). 

Subsequently you will likely get asked to produce a letter from your employer that you did not work at the New York office during the year. It must be on company letterhead. On almost all of the cases I have handled this year, this is being accepted as sufficient evidence to release the refund payment. 

What if your employer fails to provide such a letter? Even if your employer failed to supply you such a letter, but you are certain you performed no services in NY during the year, tell the auditor to subpoena your AT&T or Verizon Wireless cell phone records (they know how to do this, and do so in the vast majority of audits). Your cell phone records will support that you weren't physically present in New York. Your New York office may also have swipe card records that substantiate you did not enter the building. Your employer also likely maintains a record of your VPN access points, which will substantiate your out of State work. So there are lots of documents to support your position here. 

If a desk auditor rules against you (because of their inexperience), and asserts you still owe the tax, they will issue something called an assessment. Shortly thereafter you will receive something called a Notice of Deficiency - this is important - you have 90 days from the date of this notice to appeal the desk auditor's decision. Again, its pretty easy to fill out the form and appeal the decision. The next step is the State will connect you with the Bureau of Conciliation and Mediation Services. This group has extensive experience, and see both taxpayers who represent themselves pro se, and those that engage legal counsel. Ultimately, they have the expertise to know your wages are not taxable. 

In response to your statement "But if working virtually for a New York office is business directed at New Yorkers or for a New York interest, I have to believe the state does not believe you to be working "without" New York." Employees allocate their wages based on days worked in NY, divided by days worked everywhere, whereby days worked in New York includes days worked at home for your own convenience. So the use of the word "without" in the context of Section 132.18(a) for an employee is the taxpayer's physical presence out of the State.  A New York "interest" would only be relevant to a partner or shareholder, who are allocating distributions from income earned within and without New York. The two are completely different and should not be conflated. 

https://casetext.com/case/hayes-v-state-tax-comm an excerpt from this link: 

"According to respondent's regulations, the New York income of a nonresident individual includes compensation for personal services "only if, and to the extent that, his services were rendered within this State. Compensation for personal services rendered by a nonresident individual wholly without the State is not included in his New York adjusted gross income, regardless of the fact that payment may be made from a point within the State" (20 NYCRR 131.4 [b]). When services are performed within and without the State, the regulation provides that 20 NYCRR 131.15 through 131.17 control. 20 NYCRR 131.16 provides that if services are performed both within and without the State, the employee can disclaim salary paid for days worked without the State only if the work was necessarily performed outside the State.

Although under petitioner's agreement with CBS he could have been required to work in New York, it is undisputed that he did not work in New York. That he could have been called to New York is of no import since the regulations make it plain that services rendered wholly without the State are not taxable in New York. Only when some work is performed within New York may some or all of the income be taxed in New York, and only then should respondent determine if work was performed for the employer's necessity. It is impossible to find a different meaning in the regulations."