Remote employee not disclosing location cost this startup $500,000: Report

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The chief executive of a US-based tech startup has said he incurred a cost of half-a-million dollars because of a remote employee not disclosing their location, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Alex Atwood of Virginia-based GravyWork told the newspaper that last year, he began receiving notices from California and Texas government agencies.

He was dumbfounded.

It turned out that a former software engineer, one of Atwood's full-time employees, had been working from those states for long periods without informing him.

The notices Atwood received said he had failed to register his business in Texas and California and had to pay a fine.

Atwood said his startup owed up to $30,000 in fines and taxes. But if the time he and his colleagues took to resolve the matter was to be considered, the cost was nearly $500,000, he said.

The startup had to take important measures after this episode. It gave employees travelling to and working from different locations the status of independent contractors.

The flexibility to function from anywhere during the coronavirus pandemic has given rise to the trend of "workcations" -- combining work with vacation.

Many professionals took advantage of altered work modes to explore various destinations.

Not only did hotels and lodges come up with long-stay workcation packages, many countries began offering special visas to professionals looking to work out of scenic locales.

Countries like Dubai, Czechoslovakia and Croatia and many island territories offer remote work visas, provided workers meet minimum income requirements specified by them and have valid health insurance, among other conditions.

But it's not all rosy for workers. Tax confusions and legal hurdles are complicating the work-from-anywhere lifestyle, a Wall Street Journal report said.