There's nothing particularly clever about that, it's just straight up textbook employee fraud.

You would think that Mountain View based Google, being registered as a Delaware Corp, would understand the benefits of legal residence being different than practical residence.

And it's not fraud for an employer to arbitrarily control pay based on someones location? Is their revenue similarly confined by that employees contributions because of location?

No? You may not like it but it's very obviously not fraud by any definition.

Neither is the inverse.

If company can pick arbitrary locations around the world to be their HQ, or Trump can use Mar-a-Lago as his residence, then so too can every other citizen following the law and paying their taxes.

One is legal the other isn't.... This isn't hard you would be committing fraud no questions. Also depending on how you've lied you'd also be on the hook for tax issues to the government rather then just and issue with your company.

Did you miss?

> every other citizen following the law

For criminal fraud to happen, there has to be a defrauded party. If I follow my local tax laws and negotiate a better salary with a corporation based on Location A, while potentially living elsewhere at Location B/C/D for prolong periods of time with lower costs of living, that is not fraud.

Getting the company to enter into a contract under false pretenses is fraud. "intent to deceive" is alone enough. This isn't some kind of gotcha where your technically ok if you do X and Y. Intent matters!

Two parties entered a contract with the understand you would live in location A if you don't that's fraud objectively.

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/what-is-contr...

https://www.findlaw.com/smallbusiness/business-laws-and-regu...

https://www.upcounsel.com/intent-to-deceive-contract-law#:~:....

The only thing that matters is the legal definition of residence for the location I'm paying taxes.

Maybe you are right, but that's a lot less obvious to me.

As individuals, we're much more sensitive to the idea of breaking the law than a corporation well-protected by legal counsel and indemnity.

Well no, that’s not fraud. I’m not using “fraud” to mean “bad.” I’m talking about actual fraud.

No, it's not tax fraud. Tax is between you and the government, not you and your employer. The U.S. even allows you to ask your employer not to deduct tax so you can deal with it personally.

If you follow whatever local and state laws apply to your situation, you're perfectly in your right.

The topic is not tax fraud though?

I didn't bring up taxes, I'm just responding to it.

The topic is whether a global corporation with access to a global workforce should be allowed arbitrary salary negation privileges because of the circumstances of a candidates geographical circumstances, while robbing the candidate of the same privilege.

Just sounds like another way to exploit labor at a time of record profit windfalls for corporations.

A dev in Mountain View has many more high-paying opportunities than the same guy in Weed, CA (pop. 2,862). Google pays him more because that’s what it takes to retain him.

Someday if most employers switch to remote-first, this won’t matter and salaries will be equal everywhere (a lot lower than we’ve seen in tight labor markets, and probably the first world in general).

No that's obviously not fraud. Words have meanings.

Fraud is defined as wrongful or criminal deception that results in financial or personal gain.

A company telling me my worth is based on where I live at that exact moment definitely feels like wrongful deception intended for financial gain.

Well it's not. Don't know what to tell you bud.

The law doesn't care how you feel pal.

Is it really that different from companies registering all of their trucks in Indiana because they have the cheapest commercial insurance?

How is it fraud?

A company can be registered in a tax haven but have its main office in the US.

So where's the line. Let's say I split my time 50/50 between a high CoL area and a low CoL area. Am I obligated to declare the lower?

People do that with car insurance and jobs with residency requirements.

I used to drink with a bunch of fireman who lived about 300 miles away - they had to live in the city or adjacent county. They’d have a flophouse in the hood shared by like 20 guys and crash there once in awhile when they pulled overtime as well as get mail.

Travel scams are similar too. If a company will reimburse travel if you’re 50 miles from home, people will “move” so they can bill the mileage tolls.

It works great until it doesn’t. If you want to give up your cushy Google gig for a few thousand bucks, good luck.

Well for starters you're gonna have all applicable state and local taxes withheld from wherever you're fraudulently claiming to be living, as that is going to be where you are ACTUALLY living as far as all relevant taxation authorities are concerned.

I think a more non-fraud tactic would be to find the cheapest area in a high cost of living area and minmax on that dimension. Especially if it’s by county, then there are likely unfavorable areas within that county.