This is the season when many schools look for visitors to fill curricular needs for the upcoming academic year. I have been a visitor at three out-of-state law schools. (Lounge co-host Al Brophy landed perhaps the dream visit – Hawaii!) Visits give you the opportunity to work along side different colleagues, teach (and learn from) a new group of students, discover the history and culture of a different part of the country, experience a “practice run” before accepting a permanent offer, avoid committee work at your home school, use a different institution’s letterhead to place an article or two, perhaps learn that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, etc.
In addition to negotiating a course package, prospective visitors often request a salary supplement that will adequately cover relocation, housing, and related expenses. And here’s another suggestion to consider: request financial assistance to cover additional state income taxes incurred as a non-resident (especially if your home school is in Texas, Florida, or any of the other states with no state income tax).
Many professors who visit at an out-of-state school continue to be paid by their home school during the visit. The home school then is reimbursed by the out-of-state school. The visiting professor might conclude that this salary structure negates any need to file a non-resident tax return in the state where the visit occurs, because the salary continues to be paid by the home school. No salary payments originate in the state where the visit occurs, so the visitor need not pay non-resident taxes on those home-state salary payments, right?
Professional athletes, who often earn their salaries by performing in games throughout the country, wish that were true. But I’m told it is not. Some (many? all?) states levy an income tax based on the place of service, not the place from which payment originates. And a professor who is visiting in such a state is required to file a non-resident income tax return and report (and pay taxes on) earnings for services rendered in that state. That was my experience, anyway. I had no desire to add “tax scofflaw” to my c.v., face a state bar disciplinary proceeding, experience a tenure defrocking, or have my nomination to a high-level government position withdrawn in shame, so I researched the issue (you’d do the same, right?). And based on what I discovered, I filed non-resident income tax returns in two of the three states where I visited (the third state has no state income tax). Because I visited at one school for two semesters, I had the pleasure of filing non-resident tax forms for two consecutive years in that state.
So add this tax wrinkle to your checklist of issues as you ponder an out-of-state visit.
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