Local Taxes – This Is What It Has Come To

Selfies are now tax records as generations collide.

Local tax compliance is tricky, particularly for small firm and solo professionals.

When I was at Big Firm, I lived and worked in Dallas.  I paid income tax in Georgia, New York, North Carolina and Virginia (and probably a couple of other states) as well as a few foreign countries that I have never visited.  Over the course of the last several years, I spent one day in New York City and never so much as set foot in the other jurisdictions.  It doesn’t matter because I was a partner at a firm that did business in those states, and therefore, I did business in those states.

This brings us to Andrew Jarvis, an architect who works out of Philadelphia and New York.  Taxes are even higher for New York residents than for out of state people so he adjusted his schedule to make sure he was on in New York City less than 182 days per year.

Do you think New York is lenient with these rules?  How do you prove it?

Jarvis would take time-stamped pictures of himself in Philly by the train station or with a newspaper in hand.  This is in addition to the time honored practice of collected receipts.

In the grand tradition of older and younger generations teaching each other, Jarvis taught his daughter the value of recordkeeping and (probably) the reality of living under an oppressive tax regime, while Jarvis’ daughter taught him to post his pictures on Instagram.