Recent College Grad

srb95 — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 13:24:39 GMT

My home state has been Oregon, but I have lived, worked, and gone to college in Washington for the last three years, and I currently live in Washington still. However, my driver's license and other info still states my residence is Oregon. Can I claim to be a Washington resident, or must I claim Oregon residency?

The answer to your question is that you are "probably" st...

GeoffreyG — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 13:24:40 GMT

The answer to your question is that you are "probably" still considered an Oregon resident, for income tax purposes, based on the facts that you give in your question. At least that's how the Oregon Department of Revenue would view the matter, since you retain an Oregon driver's license, consider Oregon your home state, and still have (unspecified) "other info" indicating your Oregon residency.

That said, in order to draw a firm conclusion for yourself, under your unique individual circumstances, you are respectfully encouraged to read the Oregon Department of Revenue Publication 17 (for 2016). The relevant section on state residency and taxation begins on Page 14 therein, with the following words: "General Rule. Oregon taxes residents on all sources of income. Oregon taxes nonresidents on income from Oregon sources."

Here is the link to that document:

http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/forms/FormsPubs/publication-or-17_101-431_2016.pdf

In addition, you may wish to read as well the following AnswerXchange post, where state residency is discussed at length, in the case of a graduate student attending university in another state. While your specifics will differ, of course, the same logic and reasoning will apply to you and your situation.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3698546-determining-state-residency-as-graduate-student

Understandably, residency is a significant issue for you, because Oregon has a (high) income tax rate, and Washington has no personal income taxes at all. But, as much as we might sometimes like to conclude one thing as taxpayers (where such a determination would save us from paying additional taxes), we cannot ignore the law. The Oregon Department of Revenue is particularly vigilant in enforcing residency rules, for the very reason of the well-known Oregon / Washington tax differential.

Thank you for asking this important question.

topic Recent College Grad in Education

Recent College Grad

The answer to your question is that you are "probably" st...