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.
I work in NYC, I live in NJ, but my corporate office is in Florida. The address on my paycheck is Florida.
Do I need to pay NYC tax?
For which state that you will be paying taxes to will be dependent on how your company reports and file your income taxes. If reflected in boxes 15-20 Wages reported and Tax withheld for New York, you will need to file a non-resident State return with New York. Because you reside in NJ you will not be subjected to the city tax of New York.
If however, your employer files your income and taxes withheld are in NJ, you won’t need to file a return with New York.
Hi,
So I am a MS resident but my wife is in professional school in KY. So I moved up here with her. We did not change our state of residency and are renting in KY. We have full intentions on moving back to the coast when she is finished. However I am working up here. I made ~$4000 in MS this year and I will make a little more than that in KY this year. How would I need need to file taxes in this situation?
From this MS publication provided it is dependent on the steps you have taken in KY. Only for this year because you have moved to KY from MS, you will be able to file two part-year resident return forms. This means that the state will only be able to tax the respective income that is earned within the state. This will be different, however, if you choose to reside in KY for a full year in 2018.
I work in NY. But my family is in FL and we have a house there. I go back in forth between NY & FL. Since FL does have state tax, would I still have to pay state tax in NY? Can I claim non-resident NY tax? How would I go about doing my w2?
This would all depend on your which state you consider to be your domicile state. This is the state where you have more primary ties compared to the state that you may be currently residing in. If you consider FL as your domicile state, you can proceed with your non-resident status for NY. You will need to still pay taxes on any income that you for New York as any income earned within a respective state is subjected to taxes regardless of residential status.
I have a question, if I live in texas, but work remotely for NY? do I need to pay state taxes?
This is determined by your employer. If your W-2 shows NY in Box 15-20, then you will need to file a Non-Resident NY State Return. Otherwise, you should not need to file NY state.
I have a same question – I’ve been working from home for several years in a different state than where my office is (NYC), but my employer has always said that they are supposed to take out NY state taxes even though i do not work there(they do not take out for the state I live in). I’m afraid they are wrong, and I just moved to California and got married this year, so I’m more paranoid about this being wrong (because I’m going to be owing more) and want to get it corrected.
So basically – if I’m working and living in California – but my employer is in NYC – should I be paying only California taxes? Is there a way I can force my employer to take out the correct taxes? I do not want to get to the end of the year and have to fight to get money back from NY to pay to California.
If your employer can only file your State taxes with New York, then you are required to file a non-resident State return with New York, and a resident form with CA. You will be able to allocate a non-refundable credit for taxes paid to New York to your CA return.
If you are not a resident of New York City, you are not subjected to the city taxes.
I currently live and work in California until end of August. Beginning of September I will be living in Washington and working in Washington. However for about two weeks between roles, I will be working as an independent contractor in Washington for a company located in California. How will taxes be handled?
1) I believe I will file in CA for the time I was a permanent resident, right?
2) I believe I should be good for my role that starts mid-September since I will be a permanent resident of Washington at the time, sound right?
3) How will I be taxed for the two weeks that I am an independent contractor (living in Washington [no state income tax], but working for a CA company)?
This is dependent on how your employer handles your income reportings. However, any income that is earned as a nonresident within a state, will be subjected to taxes within that state. When you are reporting your income to the state when it comes time to file, to avoid any further confusion, you can choose to report the two weeks income that you earn as a nonresident in WA and consider it as residential income for CA.