Day count for non-resident tax returns that include international travel

I work for a Swiss company in NJ and live in NY. The NJ company has me travel to and work in Switzerland on a regular basis. My W2 lists all of my income for NJ and makes no reference to the time spent in Switzerland at the corporate offices. I have no NY W2 income. When I file my NY return I file a NJ non-resident return. As the W2 indicates all of the income as NJ income I file an NJ return for 100% of the income and then file the NY return with the NJ taxes basically offsetting the NY taxes (the rates are very slightly different but they basically offset each other) How will NY consider the days spent in Switzerland? What do NY and NJ do for day count calculations?

DanielV01
Expert Alumni

State tax filing

Generally speaking, as a NY resident, all of your income is taxable in NY, regardless of where it is earned.  There is an exception to this for Foreign income, but that exception does not seem to apply to your circumstance.  (For more information, click here, and scroll to the subheading "Resident" and the secondary subheading "Group B").  

 

Where this income should not be taxable is in New Jersey.  Since you are a nonresident of New Jersey, income earned outside of New Jersey is not taxed there.  Thus, your income earned in Switzerland truly should be excluded from your New Jersey tax return, but included for your New York tax return.  If your NJ company did not exclude this income on your W-2 (and it sounds like they did not), you may wish to get a printout or other documentation of the income earned while in Switzerland as compared to the income earned in New Jersey.

 

In the end, you end up paying essentially the same amount of total tax (because what you don't pay to NJ you instead pay to NY).  However, NY could potentially allege that the portion of income claimed as taxable to New Jersey is actually not taxable there, and disallow the tax credit for taxes paid to NJ on that income.   

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DanielV01
Expert Alumni

State tax filing

One additional note:  If you are taxed in Switzerland for this income, you could claim a credit on your United States Tax Return for the taxes paid to Switzerland.  While some states might also provide a credit for taxes paid to a Foreign Government, New York is not one of those.  You would still owe NY tax on the Swiss-origin income.

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