Your registered agent is just someone in another location that is authorized to accept mail for you. That's it.

If you work remotely for a company based in New York but you live and work outside of New York, then you pay taxes as if you're a New Yorker.

How does this even slip through? For THREE YEARS? Part of it had to do with a quirk of how taxes work in reciprocity states like Wisconsin. Part of it was because state agencies don’t talk to each other. And implementation teams aren’t tax experts. And some payroll providers don’t have enough error flags for situations like this. And humans are flawed. They make mistakes.

Your dark and mysterious payroll past comes back into your life. Another notice. Something unreadable. You thought you'd left this all behind. But here it is again. Your pulse quickens. You're back under the tax agency's smoldering gaze. And this time, they won't take no for an answer.

When you move, the old taxes need to be discontinued and the new ones added. This is true, even if your office stays in the same place. Or if you work from home. Especially if you work from home. If you don’t fix it soon, the state is going to send you a whopper of a bill when you file your tax return.

Many companies with fewer than 200 people will literally sign away legal control of their employees and pay multiple times more for payroll services. Just so they don’t have to think about state tax settings.

The worst states to have a baby in are the ones with no state-paid programs at all. You'd be better off if you were laid off. At least then you’d be eligible for unemployment. But it would be illegal to lay you off for having a baby, of course. So I guess the people in these states are screwed.

Here's a rule of thumb: The best states to work in are some of the worst states to work with.