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Nonresident Income Tax Return Instructions lists who must on page 2 and taxable income on page 6. Page 4 states: You must file a nonresident return if you received income from a New Jersey source while you were a nonresident and your income for the entire year (not just your period of nonresidency) was more than the filing threshold for your filing status (see page 2). Only report income you earned while a nonresident of New Jersey.

The answer by @BrittanyS applies to federal income tax filing, see Filing requirement . Your expenses will give you a loss on the federal and NJ it sounds like. Even though NJ will be a loss, they have a tax form with your name and income shown. NJ will be looking at the form and seeing a positive income then see your return is actually a loss.

Most states have a limit where you need to have earned enough money to make it worth processing a return. NJ  is not one of them.