For countries they have visas to go on, but moving between states or within the eu zone, how would they even know? If I have a po box or perhaps even a street address in WA or TX (no state income tax) but live in an airbnb somewhere in CA, how can the state figure it out? The employer probably can't either since you could run their vpn over your vpn.

I mean, taxes are a real thing and you have to pay them based on where you (the employee) live and do work. In the US for state income tax, it's a confusing mix of both lived location and worked location in various amounts by governments with a "claim" and with plenty of exceptions to go around. Consulting companies have had to deal with it forever (and states have "handled" forever), because you live in Miami, doing work for a company based in LA, and you travel to your client in NYC for 3 days a week for the whole year (60% of your income "generated" there). This is now a complicated Florida, New York, California scenario.

So the choice isn't Big Brother companies who want to know where you are at all times and respectful companies who allow you to get your work done how you want. It's between companies who are following the applicable tax laws or those who are not. A company that is structurally opting to not follow laws seems untenable. A company is a legal construct in many ways. Whether or not the employee can commit something like tax fraud is perhaps a less interesting question, because, yeah, you can probably cheat on your taxes.

That makes sense, but in the consulting case the employee has a motive to file expenses so the employer know. In this case it seems unreasonable for the employer to be heavily fined when they have no real way to determine their employees whereabouts. And because it would likely take an audit to catch the employee, when it does eventually happen it will be a larger hit to the business.

The error in your thinking is that many consultancies are aware of their legal nexus, and actively protect it, so ignorance is not a valid defense for any sensible company.

Talk to people who work for a big consulting firm, they've been taking "tax holidays" for the last 70+ years to ensure they don't spend more than 50% of their time away from their home base.

These companies are no fools; they wouldn't eat productivity and billable hours if they felt the state wouldn't care.

I get that the company wants to know and protect itself. I'm just not sure how they can after reading this article. Short of requiring all employees to check in physically periodically.

> For countries they have visas to go on

That's precisely the point; Many workers are not applying for work visas, which makes them outlaws and subject to deportation. Some countries have digital nomad visas with 0% tax rates now, but not most.

> If I have a po box or perhaps even a street address in WA or TX (no state income tax) but live in an airbnb somewhere in CA, how can the state figure it out?

Hypothetically, CA is financially incentivized to find that out, how is the the question.

But, if they do then they are going to

1) audit

2) if you don't respond to audit and tax -- arrest

3) at the same time suit the employer, especially if they have any operations in CA for not declaring your work properly.

What you are basically saying is, as an employee, "is it possible to commit fraud in this way". The answer is obviously yes. It's a completely separate question whether or not tax law should be the way it is.