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Level 15
Level 15

State tax filing

Your employer should switch your location to Texas, not California. You will be living and working in Texas.


As soon as you move, make sure that your employer stops withholding New York tax, and that they do not report state wages for any state or withhold tax for any state. You will be a Texas employee, and they would not report Texas wages because Texas has no state income tax. Your W-2 should not show any state wages or state withholding, other than for New York before you move. It should not show any California wages or withholding because you are a Texas employee, not a California employee. We sometimes get questions from people whose employer did not handle this correctly. It can be difficult to correct after the fact.


It would probably be a good idea if you can connect to your employer's computer in Los Angeles, rather than in New York, so you would be telecommuting to Los Angeles, not to New York.


For the year that you move, you will have to file a New York part-year resident tax return. New York has an unusual rule that the state wages in W-2 box 16 have to be the same as the federal wages in box 1. Any adjustments are made on the New York tax return. So your W-2 for the year that you move will show all your income as New York wages. On your part-year resident tax return you will show how much was actually earned in New York.