![handle is hein.journals/tlro96 and id is 1 raw text is:
TAXES ON REMOTE WORK ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY
WORKING: ZILKA V. TAX REVIEW BOARD AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS ON STATE AND LOCAL TAXATION*
I. INTRODUCTION
The befuddling interplay of state income taxation schemes has been eloquently
characterized by legal scholarship as a mess.1 State taxes involve fifty jurisdictions
applying distinct rules and differing tax rates.2 To add more complexity to this tangled
web, many states also permit cities, counties, and municipalities to levy separate
income taxes.3 With multiple governmental entities sinking their teeth into the same
bundle of earnings, individual taxpayers are often left feeling as though they are paying
too much in taxes.4
Though the presence of state and local taxation is nothing new, what has become
more pervasive since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is the situation in which a
taxpayer lives in one state but their workplace is in another state.5 When a taxpayer is
employed outside the state of residence, they may owe income tax to multiple states
and political subdivisions, in addition to taxes owed to the federal government.6
Though the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not necessarily
forbid multiple taxation of personal income, aspects of the Commerce Clause require
many states to combat duplicative taxation by providing credits for the amount of tax
paid to other states.? This practice essentially allows for apportionment of the taxes
* Josh Meyerson, J.D. Candidate, Temple University Beasley School of Law, 2024. Thank you to
Professor Andrea Monroe for your constant mentorship and support in writing this Note and throughout law
school. Thank you to Professor Jeffrey Dunoff, Patrick Zancolli, Angie Stoltzfus, Peter Butera, and the entire
Temple Law Review staff for your guidance. Above all, thank you to my wife, Danielle, my daughters, Sophie
and Marlee, and the rest of my family and friends for your unwavering love and encouragement.
1. Kathryn L. Moore, State and Local Taxation of Interstate and Foreign Commerce: The Second Best
Solution, 42 WAYNE L. REv. 1425, 1426 (1996) [hereinafter Moore, The Second Best Solution].
2. Kathryn L. Moore, State and Local Taxation: When Will Congress Intervene?, 23 J. LEGIS. 171, 173
(1997) [hereinafter Moore, When Will Congress Intervene?].
3. See CHRISTIANA K. MCFARLAND & CHRISTOPHER W. HOENE, NAT'L LEAGUE OF CITIES, CITIES AND
STATE FISCAL STRUCTURE, 16 tbl.1A (2015), https://www.nlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/
NLC_CSFS_Report_WEB.pdf [https://perma.cc/Y6RN-KJWB].
4. See Fred Backus, Nearly Half of Americans Feel They Pay Too Much in Taxes, Particularly
Conservatives, CBS NEWS (Apr. 18, 2022, 8:01 AM), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-pay-too-much-
opinion-poll-2022-04-18/ [https://perma.cc/FY8K-GF9X].
5. See Bryan Robinson, Remote Work Is Here To Stay and Will Increase into 2023, Experts Say,
FORBES (Feb. 1, 2022, 6:24 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2022/02/01/remote-
work-is-here-to-stay-and-will-increase-into-2023-experts-say [https://perma.cc/2CU5-HS7C].
6. See, e.g., Zilka v. Tax Rev. Bd. (Zilka II), Nos. 1063 C.D. 2019, 1064 C.D. 2019, 2022 WL 67789, at
* 1 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Jan. 7, 2022), 272 A.3d 991 (unpublished table decision); Comptroller of the Treasury v.
Wynne, 575 U.S. 542, 545-47 (2015).
7. JEROME R. HELLERSTEIN & WALTER HELLERSTEIN, STATE TAXATION ¶ 20.10 (3d ed. 2022).
]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tlro96&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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