{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=84FC730B-501E-4043-8671-FF980061B181", "Thune: COVID Pandemic Shouldn\u2019t Create Surprise Tax Bills for Remote and Mobile Workers", "2020-12-09", "2020", "2020-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today urged Congress to protect doctors and nurses who worked across state lines and those who have been working remotely during the pandemic from surprise state income tax bills. The long-standing issue for the mobile workforce has been heightened due to the pandemic, as medical professionals have traveled to hard-hit areas around the country and more workers have been forced to work remotely. Thune discussed his bipartisan legislation, the Remote and Mobile Worker Relief Act, which would create a uniform standard for mobile workers and how they are taxed and address particular challenges faced by remote and mobile workers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, I\u2019m hoping that we will be able to pass a COVID relief bill before Christmas.\n\n\u201cAs the leader has said, we don\u2019t need to resolve all of our differences to pass a bill.\n\n\u201cWe can pass targeted legislation that focuses on the priorities we all agree need to be addressed.\n\n\u201cI hope members of the Democrat leadership will decide that they\u2019re willing to move forward to meet our country\u2019s most critical COVID priorities.\n\n\u201cMr. President, on the subject of COVID relief, there\u2019s another issue we should address before the end of the year, and that is tax relief for remote and mobile workers.\n\n\u201cThe complicated tax situation facing mobile workers has been an issue for a while now, but it\u2019s been thrown into especially sharp relief by the pandemic.\n\n\u201cAs everyone knows, medical professionals from around the country have traveled to hard-hit areas this year to help hospitals deal with the influx of COVID cases.\n\n\u201cBut what many people don\u2019t realize is that these medical professionals \u2013 like other mobile workers \u2013 are likely to face a complicated tax situation this year as a result.\n\n\u201cFor the majority of Americans, state income tax is fairly uncomplicated.\n\n\u201cMost Americans work in the same state in which they reside, so there\u2019s no question as to what state will be taxing their income.\n\n\u201cFor mobile workers, however \u2013 like traveling nurses or technicians, or the medical professionals who responded to COVID in hard-hit states \u2013 the situation is a lot more complicated.\n\n\u201cLike most Americans, their income is subject to taxation in the state in which their permanent home is located.\n\n\u201cBut any income they earned in a state other than their state of residence is also subject to taxation in the state in which they earned it.\n\n\u201cNow, individuals can generally receive a tax credit in their home state for income tax paid to another state, thus avoiding double taxation of their income.\n\n\u201cBut mobile workers\u2019 income tax situation is still extremely complicated, as they generally have to file tax returns in multiple states.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s made even more complicated by the fact that states have a multitude of different rules governing just when income earned in their state starts to be taxed.\n\n\u201cSome states give up to a 60-day window before income earned by mobile workers in their state is subject to taxation.\n\n\u201cOther states start taxing mobile workers immediately.\n\n\u201cNavigating different states\u2019 requirements can make for a miserable tax season for mobile workers.\n\n\u201cAnd it can also be a real burden for their employers.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s particularly challenging for smaller businesses, who frequently lack the in-house tax staff and tracking capabilities of larger organizations.\n\n\u201cThe situation has long cried out for a solution.\n\n\u201cFor the past four Congresses, I\u2019ve introduced legislation \u2013 the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Simplification Act \u2013 to create a uniform standard for mobile workers.\n\n\u201cUnder my bill, if you spent 30 days or fewer working in a different state, you would be taxed as normal by your home state.\n\n\u201cIf you spent more than 30 days working in a different state, you would be subject to that other state\u2019s income tax in addition to income tax from your home state.\n\n\u201cIn June of this year, I introduced an updated version of my Mobile Workforce bill \u2013 the Remote and Mobile Worker Relief Act.\n\n\u201cLike my original Mobile Workforce bill, the Remote and Mobile Worker Relief Act would create a uniform 30-day standard governing state income tax liability for mobile workers.\n\n\u201cBut my new bill goes further and addresses some of the particular challenges faced by mobile and remote workers as a result of the coronavirus.\n\n\u201cThe Remote and Mobile Worker Relief Act would establish a special 90-day standard for health care workers who travel to another state to help during the pandemic.\n\n\u201cThis should ensure that these workers don\u2019t face an unexpected tax bill for the contributions they make to fighting the coronavirus.\n\n\u201cMy new bill also addresses the possible tax complications that could face remote workers as a result of the pandemic.\n\n\u201cDuring the coronavirus crisis, many workers who usually travel to their offices every day have ended up working from home.\n\n\u201cThis doesn\u2019t present a tax problem for most employees, but it does present a possible problem for workers who live in a different state than the one they work in.\n\n\u201cUnder current state tax laws, these workers usually pay most or all of their state income taxes to the state in which they earn their income, rather than their state of residence.\n\n\u201cHowever, now that some workers who usually work in a different state have been working from home, there\u2019s a risk that their state of residence could consider the resulting income as allocated to and taxable by it as well.\n\n\u201cThat could mean a higher tax bill for a lot of workers.\n\n\u201cMy bill would preempt this problem by codifying the pre-pandemic status quo.\n\n\u201cUnder my bill, if you planned to work in North Carolina but had to work from home in South Carolina during the pandemic, your income would still be taxed as if you were going in to the office in North Carolina every day, just as it would have been if the pandemic had never happened.\n\n\u201cMr. President, relief for mobile workers is a bipartisan idea.\n\n\u201cA version of my original Mobile Workforce bill has passed the House of Representatives multiple times, and the only reason it hasn\u2019t advanced so far in the Senate is because of the opposition of a handful of states \u2013 like New York \u2013 that aggressively tax temporary workers.\n\n\u201cNew York, of course, was the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States early on, and medical professionals from across the country came to New York to work and help out.\n\n\u201cOne would think that their presence would be an occasion for profound gratitude.\n\n\u201cBut New York Governor Andrew Cuomo apparently also regards them as an opportunity for a tax windfall.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cDespite the fact that these workers provided indispensable help to New York in its worst period during the pandemic, in May Governor Cuomo announced that these workers would nevertheless be subjected to New York\u2019s substantial income tax for the time they spent working in the state.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s unconscionable that we would allow health care professionals who risked their own lives to care for individuals in coronavirus-stricken states to be punished with unexpected tax bills.\n\n\u201cAnd we need to make sure that Americans who worked from home to help slow the spread of the virus don\u2019t face a complicated tax situation \u2013 or an unexpectedly high tax bill \u2013 as a result.\n\n\u201cIt would be wonderful to see the Democrat leader, who of course hails from New York, speak up to endorse remote and mobile worker relief.\n\n\u201cHe should make it clear whether he agrees with Governor Cuomo\u2019s decision to cash in on COVID relief workers\u2019 assistance, or whether he thinks these vital medical professionals should be spared unexpected tax bills.\n\n\u201cI really hope that he is not actively standing in the way of my bill in order to protect Governor Cuomo\u2019s effort to boost New York\u2019s coffers \u2013 at health care workers\u2019 expense.\n\n\u201cI encourage him to make it clear where he stands on this issue.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I intend to do everything I can to ensure that my bill receives a vote in the Senate before Christmas.\n\n\u201cPassing this legislation would spare a lot of workers a lot of misery in April.\n\n\u201cAmericans have been through enough over the past year.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:42:23Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=84FC730B-501E-4043-8671-FF980061B181"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4690470416098833, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}