Need to file state taxes when you live and work in different states?
Most people in the U.S. live and work in the same state, which makes state taxes pretty easy to understand – you pay taxes to the state where you live and work.
But what if you live in one state and work in another? Do you pay taxes to the state where you live? Where you earn an income? Both?!
You need to pay taxes to both. Most likely you will end up having to file a resident return in the state where you live and a nonresident return in the state where you work.
Resident return
Generally you need to file a resident return in the state where you are a permanent resident. This state has the right to tax ALL of your income, wherever it was earned.
Nonresident return
After you file your resident return in your home state, you then need to go about filing a nonresident return in every other state where you earned money. A nonresident return only taxes you on the money you earned in that state. What often happens is that you withhold some income for each state tax.
Let’s take a real-world example.
Let’s say you live in New Jersey and commute to your NYC job Monday through Friday. Come tax time, you would need to file a resident return in NJ (reporting all of your income) and a nonresident return in NY (reporting only the income you earned in NY).
Worried about being double-taxed? Don’t be. You will have an opportunity to claim a credit for taxes paid to the nonresident state. They will then divide whatever has been withheld between them and the state whose tax liability was not exactly met will either give you a refund or a tax bill.
States without an income tax
There’s always an exception to the rule. In this case, there are seven exceptions. The five states with no income tax and the two states that only tax interest and dividends are the exclusions:
- Alaska
- Florida
- Nevada
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Washington
- Wyoming
- Tennessee
- New Hampshire
If you live in one of these states, you don’t need to file a resident return (unless you live in TN or NH and have interest and dividends income). But if you work in a state that does have an income tax you have to file a nonresident return in that state.
The same holds true when the situation is reversed. If you live in a state with an income tax, you must file a resident return there. But if you work in a state without an income tax, you don’t have to worry about filing a nonresident return.
Sound complicated? There’s a reason for that: it is. But let’s not stress because here’s all you really need to know. For this to work, every state needs to make agreements with every other state covering the income they could both theoretically tax. These agreements are structured to generate a minimum amount of paperwork and special cases: instead of having some workers who lives in a state but doesn’t pay taxes, the states have someone who lives in the state and pays taxes like everyone else — but gets a special tax credit at the end of the year.
In a situation like this, it’s often best to talk to your payroll department about how to proceed. In places with many out-of-state commuters (like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as well as cities near state borders), they will have the details on how each state treats out-of-state income.
Even if you have to file multiple state tax returns you can take care of them right here on RapidTax.
Hello,
Thank you in advance for helping us.
I am moving to New York next month. I will be living in NYC, but working from home for a company in Texas.
How my bi-weekly paycheck will be affected? Will they deduct my taxes for each State, every month?
When filling my taxes, will I have to paid both States?
Could you help us considering as an example, an annual gross salary of $85,000.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Generally, for telecommuting, the rule is that you only file a state return in the state that you were physically present in when you performed services.
Since you lived for part of the year in NY and you worked from home there, you may be required to file a part year NY return. I advise you check your W-2 income statements for the state listed in box 15.
My husband and I live in MO and file jointly, but this last year I took a job in KS. KS taxes were withheld from my income, but when I file online jointly, the software is calculating our full income as taxable in KS. Therefore it is stating we owe KS, but I can add that amount paid into MO filing and it becomes a wash on amount paid vs amount refunded. Should I go to a tax accountant to file the state returns separately since my husband does not work in KS and did not pay KS taxes? Or is it okay just to file online and let it be a wash (we pay KS but get the refund from MO)?
Because you are filing a full year-resident and a non-resident tax return, your full year resident state [MO] will tax all income that you have earned throughout the year, regardless of where you earned your income. But as you have also stated you had non-resident taxes withheld for KS, and of course what you would like to prevent is double taxation. When you file your state returns with us, we will be able to determine the proper non-refundable credit to allocate to your full-year resident state from your non-resident, to prevent your state of residence [MO] from double taxing you on income you earned in KS with the taxes that were withheld.
I live in Tennessee, but work in Michigan. My office is in Illinois. I never visit the office location, work out of the client site. I am being deducted Illinois Tax, Michigan tax and also a multi-state tax( i’m assuming this is because my residence is in TN).
I should not have the IL state tax deducted correct? I know i have to pay the Michigan tax
also, in my returns, Is there a way i can claim for the tax that was deducted by IL last year? how do i do that
what is the multi state tax and is it unavoidable?
If IL withheld taxes from your pay, you will need to file a non-resident tax return for IL to receive a refund of those with-holdings. Rapid tax handles resident and Non-resident returns. Click here to get started today.
I moved to Texas in October and rented and apartment. My family stayed in Virginia to finish the school year (JunDo 2017) when we will sell the house. Do I need to pay Virginia State income taxes for the three months I worked and lived in Texas? Thanks!
If you earned income in VA, then you may need to file a VA state tax return.
My husband and I live in Ga but he works in Florida where there is no state taxes. I am trying to figure out how we file taxes now. I didn’t know if there was a different type of return we needed to file?
Hi Tina,
Since there is no income tax in Florida, he will not need to file a non resident state return for the year. He will, however, need to still file a resident state tax return for Georgia and a federal return to the IRS.