Boss discovers remote employee lying about their location: 'Can I fire them immediately for this?'

This employee works remotely, but they weren't exactly honest with their boss about which country they've been working from!

Should a remote-work employee have to disclose where they're actually working from? I can't imagine this is a problem that comes up often, so it makes sense that this confused boss is asking for advice.

Why in the world would an employee lie about where they are in the world? In the age of VPNs that can hide your location, it's not impossible, but a smart tech team could still probably figure out an employee's location without breaking a sweat. It's an awfully strange thing to do… If you work remotely, it shouldn't matter so much where you're logging in from each day. But for this boss, it actually matters a great deal.

As they shared in their request for help below, the employee seems to be traveling quite a bit, and perhaps they've been lying by omission. They're supposed to be in the UK, but they seem to have moved without telling anyone, and are just letting everyone assume they're traveling all the time. No idea why they'd want to do this charade… Read the boss's account below, and see why the boss is so worried about this.

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via A. C. For Unsplash+

Remote worker using laptop outdoors, balancing laptop on wooden guardrail with mountains in the background.
_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
This boss writes that the employee “no longer lives in the UK,” meaning that they at least started there, but they're now spending most of their time in either Turkey or Albania. But the boss also mentions that the employee travels a bit. How does the company handle other employees who travel? Maybe this is a major blind spot in their company's handbook that needs to be addressed so that things like this don't happen again.
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Remote employee has lied about their location and is working in a different country (Mixture of Turkey and Albania.) Can I fire them immediately for this?

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I mean, I don't know enough about "tax jurisdictions" to be of much help here… but I think the bigger issue is just if and how the employee is lying about their location. You can't lie about your college degree or fudge your billable hours without getting penalized by your company. If they're lying at all, the company might have a case to build against them, taxes or otherwise.
Let's check out the wise words of wisdom from people who actually do know a thing or 2 about these kinds of issues.
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via Getty Images For Unsplash+

Remote worker sits outside on a rock while wearing a large backpack, working outdoors with a huge mountain in front of her.
_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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This person says, pick the funniest option and go with that

via u/GlobalRonin

If you want them to prove they're dedicated, make them hop on a flight, I suppose!
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This is an interesting approach, too, though they should definitely involve HR before doing any big moves like this

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This might be a prudent approach

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