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,
I live in Texas with a lease and work as a paid volunteer through Americorp but I have an Alabama DL. How would I file my state taxes if any in Alabama? I don’t necessarily have income it is a under $12000 a year “living stipend”.
Hi Steve,
Volunteer for Americorp..That’s great! Anyways, you will have to file a non-resident return for Alabama if your income is more than $1,500 from Alabama sources.
Hello,
I live in DE. However, I just excepted a job that the head quarters in IL but I will be working at a plant in PA. Will I be taxed for all three states? And how do I make sure I’m paying the appropriate amount of taxes?
Hi Stacy,
Your job will probably take out either IL taxes or PA taxes (in addition to your DE taxes). When you file your state taxes, you’ll file your resident return for DE and a non-resident return for IL or PA (whatever one they take out).
Hello,
I run a company out of DE. I have several employees that live in MD, but work in DE. Currently we withhold DE state taxes, and any applicable MD local taxes. However, we do not withhold MD state taxes. Am I doing this incorrect, and if so, please clarify the proper way I should be withholding, and how this affects my employees end of year returns.
Thanks.
Hi Paul,
Every state has different tax laws, so it’s best to check with DE (since your company is run out of DE). However, it sounds like you are doing it correctly! Do note, it’s the MD employees responsibility to file a resident return for the MD (the state they live in) along with a non-resident return for DE (along with their federal return of course). The non-resident return will only tax them on the income they earned in DE. You can make them aware of this responsibility.
Hello,
I have a question. I moved from Virginia at the beginning of 2013 (Jan. 5th), This year I did not earn any money in VA. I moved to Florida where there is no state income tax. However, I never changed my drivers license to a Florida license until about October. I fully intended on moving to FL permanently, but just slacked on getting the license changed. I did sign a year long lease, I do work full time here.
Will Virginia expect me to pay state income tax up until the time I switched my license?
Hi Kelly,
You would only have to file states taxes for VA if you received VA income of $11,950 or more. Saying that, you won’t have to file any state taxes, considering Florida doesn’t have an income tax.
That means, you’ll just have to file a federal return. The IRS will start accepting returns on Jan 31st but you can prepare your federal return now on RapidTax (and your return will be submitted to the IRS automatically on Jan 31st).
Hope that answered your question. Best of luck!
hello – I am wondering how I file this year, and the upcoming years. I was living in Manhattan, and working for a company based there. I moved this last June to Illinois. I still work full time for this company, from my home in Illinois, and my W2 has been changed to my Illinois address.
Can you help explain how I file this year, and then how I file in upcoming years, still working under this situation – working as a full time employee for an out of state company?
Thanks for insight –
Hi Louis,
If the company is out of Manhattan, in future years you’ll need to file a non-resident return for New York and a resident return for Illinois. For this year, you will file a part-year resident return for Illinois and a part-year resident return for New York.
Best of luck!