Hartford Business Journal

18 Hartford Business Journal • June 4, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Movers & Shakers Travis Softic has joined Bloomfield- based FMi Chemical Inc. as a research and development (R&D) chemist. He brings experience in raw materials, combined with practical experience in R&D and technical chemistry to FMi, which manufactures high-performance nonmetallic sealants and compounds for the aerospace and aircraft marketplaces and offers custom manufacturing services to customers. Softic held R&D chemistry and technical service chemistry positions with Randolph Products and Presstek LLC before joining FMi Chemical. Michael C. Harrington has joined LeClairRyan as a partner on the firm's employment litigation, OSHA and election law and campaign finance teams in the Hartford office and Elizabeth M. "Beth" Smith has joined as a partner on the employment and business litigation teams, also in Hartford. Harrington assists employers in the private and public sectors, providing counsel and training on issues such as sexual harassment prevention and union organizing campaigns. Smith has nearly 20 years of experience in labor and employment law and commercial litigation, representing businesses on a variety of legal issues before administrative agencies, arbitrators, and in state and federal courts. John Hoadley has been promoted to a full-time personal trainer and fitness instructor for Duncaster's aquatic and fitness center in Bloomfield. Maureen Sullivan has been promoted to vice president-retail operations for Windsor Federal Savings. Sullivan rose from part-time teller at the bank to branch manager and then assistant vice president before her latest promotion. James Romano has joined Fiduciary Investment Advisors LLC (FIA) in Windsor as executive vice president and will be a member of the senior leadership team responsible for the firm's daily operations. His areas of responsibility include strategic development of the firm, and financial and risk management. Prior to joining FIA, he worked more than 20 years at Conning, where he served as chief risk officer and head of the risk solutions business. Jennifer Donovan has been promoted to president of Red Barn Consulting LLC, a marketing, operations and sales consulting firm in New Hartford. She will work closely with CEO Cindy Donaldson in taking over day-to-day operations as part of Donaldson's succession plan. Donovan joined Red Barn in 2015 as director of operations. Prior to joining Red Barn, she worked as part of the human resources team at O&G Industries and in customer service at Dymax Corp., both in Torrington. Mark Duclos, president of Sentry Commercial in Hartford, has been named president- elect of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), which announced its 2019 officers, effective in October. Duclos will serve a one-year term before becoming global president. Keith Madore has been appointed executive director of the Tunxis Community College Foundation in Farmington. Madore will work to provide financial support to Tunxis while creating a new annual fund appeal, among other efforts. He takes on the new role in addition to serving as the director of institutional advancement and community engagement at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield. Michael LeBoeuf has been appointed senior director in the Americas Life practice of Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company. LeBoeuf will be based out of Hartford, where he will deliver consulting services to life insurance clients. LeBoeuf, a life insurance industry veteran of more than 30 years, joins Willis Towers Watson from Prudential Financial, where he was chief actuary of individual life insurance. Dana R. Bucin, partner and chair of the immigration group at Murtha Cullina LLP, has been appointed honorary consul of Romania to Connecticut. As honorary consul, Bucin, who works in the law firm's Hartford office, will continue to develop cross-border business exchanges with Romania and enhance the visibility of Romanians in Connecticut. Bucin counsels foreign investors and entrepreneurs on setting up businesses in the U.S. or investing in U.S. ventures. Travis Softic Mark Duclos Jennifer Donovan John Hoadley Maureen Sullivan Why working from home could increase employees' tax bills By Jeanne Sahadi CNNMoney W orking from home can be a dream for many. But for some, it can also mean a bigger tax bill. If you live in one state but work remotely for an employer based in another, you risk paying more tax than you would if you lived and worked in the same state. In a few cases, you may even end up double taxed. The good news: You can avoid this fate if your home state has a recipro- cal tax agreement with a neighbor- ing state, which establishes that your income would only be taxed by one of the two. Such agreements exist in many states — Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mon- tana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin — but not in Connecticut. Or, absent a reciprocal agreement, those who work from home some of the time may be allowed to split their income tax burden: They pay tax on income earned from home to their resident state, and they pay tax to their employer's state for days they work at the office. But that's not always the case. How you can end up double taxed You risk being double taxed if you live in one state but work for a com- pany based in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania or Nebraska. These five states apply a so-called convenience vs. necessity test. If they determine that working from home is a matter of convenience for you rather than a necessity for your em- ployer, "you will owe taxes to those states on the income you earn during your work-from-home days," said Cosimo Zavaglia, an associate at the law firm Morgan Lewis. New York is toughest in this regard, according to Roxanne Bland, a con- tributing editor to State Tax Notes. For instance, to contend that work- ing from home is a necessity, you must prove you could not possibly do your work at your employer's office or that your employer requires you to work from home as a condition of employment. You also may need to prove the employer has a business purpose to have an office exactly where you live or that you regularly hold business meet- ings at your home office and never use it for personal reasons. The list goes on. "Very few telecommuters would meet this standard. Thus, New York's convenience of the employer test will likely result in double taxation of a telecommuter's income," Bland wrote in Tax Notes. That's because your resident state may also choose to tax the income generated by your working from home. Fortunately, many states give you a tax credit for any taxes you pay to an- other jurisdiction. So effectively you end up only paying income tax to one state when all is said and done, although you still have to file two state tax returns. But not all states are so generous. Connecticut, for instance, only gives residents a credit for taxes paid to another state for income earned in that other state. It won't give you a credit for money you earned working from your living room in Fairfield. So if you telecommute from Con- necticut to an employer based in New York you'll end up being double taxed on the portion of your income earned from home. California has different rules. It taxes its residents on all income, re- gardless of where it's earned. So if you live in California and telecommute to an employer based in New York, you could be double taxed on at least a portion of your income as well. When you'll simply pay more More common than double taxation is the risk of paying more tax than you otherwise would if you simply lived and worked in the same state. If you telecommute from Florida — which has no state income tax — but work for an employer in a state with an income tax, you'll likely end up paying that on some or all of your income. Or if you work for a company in a state with a higher income tax than your home state, you'll end up pay- ing the higher of the two amounts, according to Zavaglia. That's because your home state will only give you a tax credit up to the tax you'd owe if you earned all your income in-state. He added that "this increase in total taxes is even more of an overall con- cern now that state and local taxes in excess of $10,000 are no longer deductible at the federal level." Working from home has become a generally accepted practice for many Connecticut employers. PHOTO | HBJ FILE Keith Madore

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