@chickentax56 wrote:
Let's say you reside in state A with no income tax and work a few months of the year in state B, during which you receive a bonus. What happens if you leave state B for a few days to work from state C that does or does not collect income tax (or perhaps even state A) on the week/day that you actually collect the bonus? Does any state get a piece of your bonus in that scenario?
For cash basis taxpayers, income is taxed when actually received. (Basically, everyone is a cash basis taxpayer. Some businesses may be accrual-based taxpayers, but this is complicated and needs an accountant to help set up. I'm not even sure it is a possible for a person to be an accrual based taxpayer if they wanted to be.)
Whether your bonus would be income in state C would depend on if you were actually working and earning money in state C, or just visiting. Possibly state C could consider it as their income. You're starting to get very technical and this explains why professional sports players pay their accountants 10% of their income. Think about a ball player who has a home in state A, plays home games in state B, and away games in 20 other states. I'm sure I'm not qualified to work out all these scenarios.
There is also an element of practicality to go into. For example, I usually attend a conference for work in the Spring (normal Springs, anyway) that runs Sunday-Wednesday. Since I'm staying in a hotel overnight, and I'm "on the job" so to speak when I do convention activities, then potentially the wages I earn from Monday-Wednesday are non-resident income in the state of the convention, especially if a payday fell on one of those days. But I have never bothered about it. I don't believe I'm even a non-resident in any meaningful way, and I suspect that attending a 4 day conference does not really create a nexus. (The state might differ, assuming they had a way to track millions of short duration travelers. And if a won a lottery jackpot from a ticket I bought during the convention, that would be another matter, of course.)
This might be an interesting read.
https://thepointsguy.com/news/3-tips-to-make-your-frequent-multi-state-travel-less-of-a-burden-at-ta...
This is similar, although there must be a typo in one of the lists since MO is not listed as a state.
https://www.concur.com/newsroom/article/what-are-state-tax-implications-for-traveling-employees
One specific example: Illinois does not tax "incidental work days" in the state of Illinois if your "base of operations" is outside the state.
https://www.equityplanner.pwc.com/HRS/EquityPlanner/EPv1.nsf/6ab0d3d50ec9f70386256d82004f6ead/95c933...
