I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4796 

To limit the authority of States to tax certain income of employees for 

employment duties performed in other States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 22, 2019 

Mr. STEUBE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To limit the authority of States to tax certain income of 

employees for employment duties performed in other States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mobile Workforce 

5 State Income Tax Simplification Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS ON STATE WITHHOLDING AND TAX7 ATION OF EMPLOYEE INCOME. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—No part of the wages or other re9 muneration earned by an employee who performs employVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4796.IH H4796

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1 ment duties in more than one State shall be subject to 

2 income tax in any State other than— 

3 (1) the State of the employee’s residence; and 

4 (2) the State within which the employee is 

5 present and performing employment duties for more 

6 than 30 days during the calendar year in which the 

7 wages or other remuneration is earned. 

8 (b) WAGES OR OTHER REMUNERATION.—Wages or 

9 other remuneration earned in any calendar year shall not 

10 be subject to State income tax withholding and reporting 

11 requirements unless the employee is subject to income tax 

12 in such State under subsection (a). Income tax with13 holding and reporting requirements under subsection 

14 (a)(2) shall apply to wages or other remuneration earned 

15 as of the commencement date of employment duties in the 

16 State during the calendar year. 

17 (c) OPERATING RULES.—For purposes of deter18 mining penalties related to an employer’s State income tax 

19 withholding and reporting requirements— 

20 (1) an employer may rely on an employee’s an21 nual determination of the time expected to be spent 

22 by such employee in the States in which the em23 ployee will perform duties absent— 


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1 (A) the employer’s actual knowledge of 

2 fraud by the employee in making the determina3 tion; or 

4 (B) collusion between the employer and the 

5 employee to evade tax; 

6 (2) except as provided in paragraph (3), if 

7 records are maintained by an employer in the reg8 ular course of business that record the location of an 

9 employee, such records shall not preclude an employ10 er’s ability to rely on an employee’s determination 

11 under paragraph (1); and 

12 (3) notwithstanding paragraph (2), if an em13 ployer, at its sole discretion, maintains a time and 

14 attendance system that tracks where the employee 

15 performs duties on a daily basis, data from the time 

16 and attendance system shall be used instead of the 

17 employee’s determination under paragraph (1). 

18 (d) DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.—For pur19 poses of this Act: 

20 (1) DAY.— 

21 (A) Except as provided in subparagraph 

22 (B), an employee is considered present and per23 forming employment duties within a State for a 

24 day if the employee performs more of the emVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4796.IH H4796

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1 ployee’s employment duties within such State 

2 than in any other State during a day. 

3 (B) If an employee performs employment 

4 duties in a resident State and in only one non5 resident State during one day, such employee 

6 shall be considered to have performed more of 

7 the employee’s employment duties in the non8 resident State than in the resident State for 

9 such day. 

10 (C) For purposes of this paragraph, the 

11 portion of the day during which the employee is 

12 in transit shall not be considered in determining 

13 the location of an employee’s performance of 

14 employment duties. 

15 (2) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’ has the 

16 same meaning given to it by the State in which the 

17 employment duties are performed, except that the 

18 term ‘‘employee’’ shall not include a professional 

19 athlete, professional entertainer, qualified production 

20 employee, or certain public figures. 

21 (3) PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE.—The term ‘‘pro22 fessional athlete’’ means a person who performs 

23 services in a professional athletic event, provided 

24 that the wages or other remuneration are paid to 


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1 such person for performing services in his or her ca2 pacity as a professional athlete. 

3 (4) PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINER.—The term 

4 ‘‘professional entertainer’’ means a person of promi5 nence who performs services in the professional per6 forming arts for wages or other remuneration on a 

7 per-event basis, provided that the wages or other re8 muneration are paid to such person for performing 

9 services in his or her capacity as a professional en10 tertainer. 

11 (5) QUALIFIED PRODUCTION EMPLOYEE.—The 

12 term ‘‘qualified production employee’’ means a per13 son who performs production services of any nature 

14 directly in connection with a State qualified, cer15 tified or approved film, television or other commer16 cial video production for wages or other remunera17 tion, provided that the wages or other remuneration 

18 paid to such person are qualified production costs or 

19 expenditures under such State’s qualified, certified 

20 or approved film incentive program, and that such 

21 wages or other remuneration must be subject to 

22 withholding under such film incentive program as a 

23 condition to treating such wages or other remunera24 tion as a qualified production cost or expenditure. 


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1 (6) CERTAIN PUBLIC FIGURES.—The term 

2 ‘‘certain public figures’’ means persons of promi3 nence who perform services for wages or other remu4 neration on a per-event basis, provided that the 

5 wages or other remuneration are paid to such person 

6 for services provided at a discrete event, in the na7 ture of a speech, public appearance, or similar event. 

8 (7) EMPLOYER.—The term ‘‘employer’’ has the 

9 meaning given such term in section 3401(d) of the 

10 Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 3401(d)), 

11 unless such term is defined by the State in which 

12 the employee’s employment duties are performed, in 

13 which case the State’s definition shall prevail. 

14 (8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 

15 the several States. 

16 (9) TIME AND ATTENDANCE SYSTEM.—The 

17 term ‘‘time and attendance system’’ means a system 

18 in which— 

19 (A) the employee is required on a contem20 poraneous basis to record his work location for 

21 every day worked outside of the State in which 

22 the employee’s employment duties are primarily 

23 performed; and 

24 (B) the system is designed to allow the em25 ployer to allocate the employee’s wages for inVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 28, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4796.IH H4796

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1 come tax purposes among all States in which 

2 the employee performs employment duties for 

3 such employer. 

4 (10) WAGES OR OTHER REMUNERATION.—The 

5 term ‘‘wages or other remuneration’’ may be limited 

6 by the State in which the employment duties are 

7 performed. 

8 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY. 

9 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall take effect on 

10 January 1 of the second calendar year that begins after 

11 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

12 (b) APPLICABILITY.—This Act shall not apply to any 

13 tax obligation that accrues before the effective date of this 

14 Act. 

Æ 


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