Question

South Dakota law change (2023): legal full-time-traveler resident of SD cannot pay into unemployment from fully remote job in GA

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
January 5, 2024
2 replies
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I am a legal resident of South Dakota since Oct 2022. South Dakota caters to full-time travelers and allows them to declare SD as their domicile with a few requirements, all of which I meet. Part of the relevant situation is that thousands of full-time-travelers legally domiciled in SD use Personal Mailbox addresses as their primary address. I have such type of address and I travel around America in my RV 100% of the year. My problem started in 2023 when SD updated their laws (see: 61-1-3. Employing unit defined ; 61-1-26. Service within and without state included--Base of operations or residence as basis for coverage. ; 61-1-27. Service considered within state--Services in more than one state. ) to not allow out-of-state employers to pay into SD unemployment for their SD employees.

This has caused quite a pickle for me to navigate. My employer informed me that it is not possible to differentiate between unemployment tax and state income tax; therefore, my employer wants me to fill out a G-4 tax for Georgia Withholdings and to pay back taxes to the state of GA for the entirety of 2023 (~$10,000).

My main questions are:
1) Do I have to fill out this G-4 tax form, and if so, what address do I put as my "Home Address" in the form box 2a since I am not a resident of Georgia?
2) If I fill out the G-4 tax form, does that make me a Georgia resident? and how does that affect the legality of my RV registration and driver's license in SD?

any help would greatly be appreciated!

A

Anonymous_

Employee

@DoninGA may have some insight on this. Otherwise, you probably going to have to contact Support.

How do I contact TurboTax? (intuit.com)

DoninGA

Employee

If you are working in Georgia with a Georgia employer then you are required to provide the employer a Form G-4 for state tax withholding. Completing the G-4 does not make you a Georgia resident.

If you lived in Georgia for 183 days or more in continuous 12 month period then you are a Georgia resident for tax purposes. You are required to file a Georgia state tax return for income received while working and living in Georgia, either part-year, full year or nonresident.

A

amandawraymondAuthor

Thank you for your quick response! I am new to all of this and trying to fully understand your response, so apologize if any of this is redundant

To be clear, I did not live in GA while working for GA based company.
1. So would that make me a non-resident for tax purposes and would that mean I need to fill out another Tax form for nonresident, in addition to the G-4 form?

2. If I do fill out the G-4 form - What address should I use on my G-4 Form? My South Dakota address?

3. My understanding is that Georgia is not a state listed to enforce the "convenience rules" for remote employees. So does that mean Georgia might refund me my withholdings for state income tax when I file my taxes for 2023 since I am not a resident?

DoninGA

Employee

If you are working remoting for a Georgia employer then you have Georgia Sourced income and a GA state return is required. You would file as a nonresident only reporting your GA income and the GA taxes withheld on that income.

Since SD does not have a personal income tax you cannot get a credit for the GA state income taxes paid..