topic How to determine residency in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

How to determine residency

1421windsong — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 19:45:25 GMT

I am a travel nurse with the following scenario:

2025

January - September 2nd I work full time in DC, and lived in VA

September 5th - October 19 - Moved back home to NH, where my bank is still located and driver's license

October 20- December 31 - Travel nurse in San Diego, maintained NH license, bank and kept my NH residence for all CA documents (had to list primary since I gave up VA apartment).

Is this too complicated for me to do on Turbo tax? Would I claim FT in VA, PT in CA? OR no residency in CA as I'm a travel nurse, but did pay some CA taxes.

Is turbo tax sophisticated enough to walk me through it all?

Re: How to determine residency

Mike9241 — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:35:36 GMT

I think your situation is too complicated for Turbotax, but see what others say.

see this article

https://www.investopedia.com/tax-residency-rules-by-state-5114689

here's a key line

"While domicile rules are generally consistent across the U.S., statutory residency requirements vary significantly between states, and factors like convenience rules or reciprocity agreements can add complexity."

Re: How to determine residency

1421windsong — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:03:28 GMT

Thank you. Hopefully some others will chime in.

Re: How to determine residency

Opus 17 — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:15:17 GMT

Where was your permanent residence during the first part of the year, Virginia or New Hampshire?

Re: How to determine residency

1421windsong — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:23:00 GMT

VA for 9 months. Worked full time NH only for 1.5 months before my next job started. Was just stating my bank and license still here (no car). TY

Re: How to determine residency

Opus 17 — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:58:06 GMT

@1421windsong wrote:

VA for 9 months. Worked full time NH only for 1.5 months before my next job started. Was just stating my bank and license still here (no car). TY

I'm still not sure that's clear. We need to talk about the concept of domicile. Your domicile is your permanent or main residence. You can only have one domicile at a time. You can be away from your domicile for a long time, even years, without changing your domicile. It depends on facts, circumstances and intent. There is no single factor that determines where your domicile is located, it depends on a combination of factors including things like where you own a home or have a long term lease; where you are registered to vote; where your significant social relationships are located like church and clubs; where your significant professional relationships are located like your primary care doctor, dentist, attorney; where you intend to return after any temporary assignments; and so on. To establish a new domicile, you have to take active steps to abandon your former domicile. You could change domiciles 3 times in one year, if that was your intent. Or, you might move around on temporary assignments, with the intention of returning to your original domicile at the end of the assignment.

This is important because you said you moved "back" to NH, and then you moved to CA but kept some documents in NH. (Although that by itself is not enough to establish that you maintained your NH domicile or moved your domicile to CA. It depends on all factors.)

So I return to my original question, phrased slightly differently. Where was your domicile at each period of the year? Were you always domiciled in VA, changed your domicile to NH, then changed your domicile again to CA? Or something else?

Re: How to determine residency

1421windsong — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:24:01 GMT

OK, well...... If I didn't go to CA for a temporary assignment (10/20-12/31/2025), my primary location was VA as I had completed a 2 year lease prior.

I left my license as is in NH as I don't have a car and was back there between moves.

So, would I split both as part time, or use VA as primary?

Also, I saw Turbo tax does allow a person to use them to complete their taxes. Any thoughts on this service? Rather pay the $150 than worry I am completing this incorrectly.

Thanks

Re: How to determine residency

Opus 17 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:36:41 GMT

@1421windsong

I hate to keep asking for clarification, but I'm not getting the answers I need to understand.

From January 1 to Sept 2, you were a permanent resident of VA, and you worked in DC.

From Sept 5 to October 19, you lived in New Hampshire. At that time, did you consider New Hampshire to be your new permanent home (domicile), or did you still consider yourself domiciled in Virginia?

From October 20 through December 31, you were a travel nurse in California. At that time, did you consider New Hampshire to be your permanent home, or was Virginia your permanent home throughout that time? Or is California your new permanent home?

Your statement about completing a lease confuses me. If you had a lease in VA that had ended when you moved someplace else, you are probably not domiciled in VA after the lease ended.

From my guess about how you will answer these clarifications, you should be able to prepare your own return with Turbotax. (Especially since NH does not have a state income tax.) The Live Chat Assist and Live Full Service programs are certainly valuable for people who need them, although I have never used them.

Re: How to determine residency

1421windsong — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:50:06 GMT

I appreciate your patience, trying to answer as simply as I can

Upon leaving VA, which was my permanent residence until 9/5, I then used NH as my primary for CA paperwork as it is a travel nurse job, and I no longer had any legal ties to VA such as an apartment or job waiting for me. I stated about the lease to show it ended and not ongoing while I'm in CA).

I appreciate your feedback on Live Chat and Live Full Service

Re: How to determine residency

Opus 17 — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:08:28 GMT

@1421windsong wrote:

I appreciate your patience, trying to answer as simply as I can

Upon leaving VA, which was my permanent residence until 9/5, I then used NH as my primary for CA paperwork as it is a travel nurse job, and I no longer had any legal ties to VA such as an apartment or job waiting for me. I stated about the lease to show it ended and not ongoing while I'm in CA).

I appreciate your feedback on Live Chat and Live Full Service

TY

OK, your situation is fairly straightforward.

From January-September you were a resident of VA. You will file a VA state tax return as a part-year resident, for all your income that was earned or paid while you were living in VA. The fact that your work location was physically located in DC should not be relevant, what counts is where you physically lived. (However, if you had DC taxes withheld from your paychecks, you will need to file a DC return as a non-resident, reporting zero wages, zero taxes owed, and claiming a full refund of the amount that was incorrectly withheld.)

From September through the end of the year, you were a resident of NH. NH does not have a state income tax.

From October to December you worked in California as a non-resident. You will file a non-resident CA return that only reports and taxes the wages earned while you were living and working in CA. Other income that was paid while you were in California but was not from working (such as bank interest), is not taxed by California. It would only be taxed by your home state, but your home state doesn't have an income tax.

So you need two (or at the most 3) state tax returns, VA, CA and maybe DC. Both Turbotax Online and Turbotax Desktop installed on your computer can handle this situation. You would start by entering all your tax information on the federal side. Then you would indicate you were a permanent resident of VA for part of the year (and give the dates), a permanent resident of NH for the rest of the year, and a non-resident working in CA for part of the year. You will be asked to allocate your income accordingly, Turbotax can't do it automatically. But it should not be too difficult. It sounds like you would allocate 100% of your income from job #1 to VA, and 100# of your income from job #2 to CA. If you had bank interest or other non-work income, you would allocate it to VA or NH.

If you have DC withholding, you would create a non-resident return but allocate zero percent of your income to DC (because your DC income should all be allocated to VA according to DC and VA law). You would include your DC withholding, and because you owe no DC income tax, you should get a full refund of any DC withholding.

Re: How to determine residency

1421windsong — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:16:03 GMT

Thank you so much for that detailed answer. Yeah, DC interchanges so to speak with VA so all good there. I appreciate your patience and willingness to help me.