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Paying for the ‘Privilege’ of Remote Work
Why does every employee benefit come with a price tag?
In a recent report, Deutsche Bank researchers suggest that those working from home in the future should be taxed since not having to go to the office is a privilege:
Working from home will be part of the ‘new normal’ well after the pandemic has passed. We argue that remote workers should pay a tax for the privilege.
Let me get this straight. The taxes that we have historically been subject to are sales taxes (where we consume goods and services), property taxes (where we are taxed on property as a proxy for use of public goods, like roads, schools, parks, hospitals, health care and other public services, and so on), or on income (again, as a means of contributing to the public good).
The line through these forms of taxation is that we are taking advantage of the public goods in our neighborhood, municipality, county, state, and nation, and we need to contribute based on our means, but in a way that is consonant with our use of those goods. I pay city taxes because I drive on the streets in my city, use the parks, and want rainwater to drain to the Hudson through city-maintained storm drains. I pay state taxes because I benefit from the train system, the highways, and the New York department of public health…
