I work remotely from Florida for a company in Georgia, they are withholding Georgia State Taxes, is this correct?

[michaeljohn1]

As the title states, I work and live in Florida for a company whose headquarters are in Georgia. They are currently withholding State Incomes Tax from Georgia but if I'm understanding everything I'm reading, they shouldn't because I have "physical nexus" in Florida. Now, I know some states have a "convenience rule" but I don't see that Georgia has one, so even though I'm working from Florida for convenience, I should still only pay Florida State Income Tax. Of course, Florida doesn't have State Income Tax so really, I shouldn't have to pay any State Income Tax. 

I also found this on the Georgia Department of Revenue website:

Non-residents who work in Georgia or receive income from Georgia sources and are required to file a Federal income tax return are required to file a Georgia Form 500 Individual Income Tax Return.

Some examples of Georgia source income are:

• Wages
• Georgia Lottery Winnings
• Income from flow through entities (S-Corporations, Partnerships, LLCs, Trust, and estates
• Rents

If you are a legal resident of another state, you are not required to file a Georgia income tax return if:

• Your only activity for financial gain or profit in Georgia consists of performing services in Georgia for an employer as an employee 
• The compensation for services performed does not exceed the lesser of five percent of the wages in all places or $5,000.00

So technically, I receive income from Georgia Sources, (my employer), I think the second bolded addendum applies to me? So this also seems to indicate I shouldn't be Paying Georgia State Income Tax and file and Georgia State Income Tax Return. Correct?

[BillM223 · Accepted solution]

Your domicile is in Florida, so you would file a Florida return, if, as you point out, the state had one.

In the case of Georgia, you would pay tax to Georgia if you worked there, but you don't, as you pointed out.

HOWEVER, for any days you traveled to Georgia to go to the office (even for a visit), then you would be generally liable to pay tax for those days. Yes, you would have to prorate your annual Wages on the ratio of days in Georgia versus total days in the year. 

Sadly, you will have to file a Georgia nonresident return in any case, in order to recover the tax withheld for Georgia. Your employer has already sent those withholdings to the state, and the only way for you to get it back is to file a Georgia nonresident resident return.

You will have to do this until you can convince your HR department to stop Georgia withholding on you, so if you do that now, you will still have to file a nonresident return for Georgia for tax year 2020.

[michaeljohn1]

Awesome, thank you so much for the clarification. So in order to recover the taxes withheld, I would need to file a non-resident return as having earned 0 income in Georgia? Do I also need to amend my W-2? Because the W-2 states that I received my Wages from Georgia and the taxes were withheld as it seems my company is not yet registered in my state.

[JotikaT2]

It depends.

You will need to report your wages in TurboTax exaclty as it was reported on your W-2 Form in Boxes 15-17.

If your income level is below the filing requirement, you will be able to make the adjustment in the state interview section of the program to indicated none of the wages were earned from GA sources.

[rebazambrano]

Hi, I am having the same situation here. I am a Florida resident who works for a Georgia based company. I have not sent my state form back to HR yet as I want to be sure this is right. Were you able to solve this? Do you have any advice?

[rebazambrano]

Hi. I was wondering if you were able to fix this issue. Do you remember if you recovered all the money taxed by Georgia, or just a portion? I am in the same exact situation and I am receiving a portion of the money the state of Georgia taxed me while working 100% remotely from Florida.

[MayaD]

If you never lived or worked in GA you do not have to pay GA state income taxes and you should receive a refund for taxes withheld. 

You need to file a GA non-resident,  enter 0 on the screen that asks for the amount of income earned in that state. This will eliminate your tax liability for that state, resulting in a full refund.

[rebazambrano]

I did it and it seemed to have worked! Thank you very much!!!

[BB222]

Did you get all paid GA income tax refunded?

[rebazambrano]

No, I did not. GA department of revenue approved my tax forms where I was supposed to receive $666 back. 2 weeks ago I called them due to not having received anything yet and they said that it was delayed because they had to adjust it. I just received a check for $260 and no explanation in paper for it. The reason they gave me over the phone is that the company that I work for reported me as a Georgia tax payer even though I do not live or work in Georgia. My company says that it doesn't make sense because my address has always been a Florida address and they're working to try to fix it. My advice is to NOT fill out the GA tax form at all!!! Of course, I'm not a tax expert but this what someone at TurboTax adviced when I first inquired about this (when I got the job) but the payroll company that we were using back then insisted on me filling this form out and I did.

[TomD8]

Per the Georgia Employers Tax Guide, Georgia employers are required to withhold GA taxes from non-residents only if the non-resident performs services within Georgia.

https://dor.georgia.gov/employers-tax-guide

[rebazambrano]

Something went wrong, either the payroll company made a mistake that cost me $400 or GA DOR did. I do remember that my GA tax forms had my Florida address and I work 100% remotely.

Hopefully my employer can do something and fix this. The part that I dislike the most is that there's no formal explanation besides what I was told over the phone.

[Hal_Al]

Hopefully, your company can fix this for  future withholding. 

I don't think they can help you get the $400 back, other than privide a statement, that you can submit to the DOR, staing that they make a mistake in withhoding GA tax and certifying that you did not physically work in GA, during that period.  You should receive a written explanation fro GA DOR any day now (it comes separet from the check). You'll need to respond to them with more info.