Prior to this year all of my work was done within my home state.
In July of 2023 things changed. I work from home 3 out of 4 weeks (MA - 75%). The fourth week I now working in our RI office instead of Boston (RI - 25%).
I filled out a form with my employer on July 17th so they would start correctly handling the tax-related information correctly. The first half of the year, everything was earned in Massachusetts. Second half - 25% was in RI.
My W-2 does have two separate sections so I see state tax info for both MA and RI. That is good.
Let's pretend the amount for my overall earnings for the Federal Tax Return is $1000. This my full earnings for the year in both states combined. I see that in Box 1 on Copy B to use for the Federal tax return.
For the MA State info, it's showing this same full $1000 amount as the MA State wages in Box 16 and then the MA taxes taken out in Box 17.
For the RI State state wages, it's showing a lesser amount, about 15% of this $1000 total, in the state wages box 16. (for this example $150). This makes sense to me since it was only half of the year that I was working in RI 25% of the time. So it would be prorated down.
It seems to me that having the full amount I earned in boths states in the MA State wages box is wrong and is overstating my income in MA. This then makes it appear I underpaid MA taxes and now owe the state money. Shouldn't the state wages for MA be the remaining 85% ($850) so that the MA and RI State Wages sum to the full $1000?
Thanks everyone.
