Filing NY IT-203 Nonresident Return, did not work in NY at all

[McAndrewEr]

My employer withheld state tax for New York and I would like to get a refund for that tax.  I am a resident of Massachusetts and did not live or work in New York at all in 2021. I had worked some days in previous years in NY, but not in 2021 and my main office is located in Massachusetts, not NY.

When filling out NY IT-203-B my total days worked is equal to my total days worked outside of New York (Form IT-203-B, lines h and i). This is causing an error and preventing me from filing my NY returns electronically but this is accurate.  What do I need to do to file my NY return electronically?

[LenaH]

Rather than allocating by days, allocate by percentage and enter 0% or select don't allocate this employer on the screen Allocate Wages to New York. Either of these methods will end up with you having zero sourced wages for New York. 

This should clear your error and allow you to e-file. 

[LenaH]

Rather than allocating by days, allocate by percentage and enter 0% or select don't allocate this employer on the screen Allocate Wages to New York. Either of these methods will end up with you having zero sourced wages for New York. 

This should clear your error and allow you to e-file. 

[McAndrewEr]

Thanks for the reply @LenaH, unfortunately neither of the suggested solutions solve my problem and allow me to e-file.

Allocating by percentage and setting it to 0 results in a similar error as stating 0 days worked. The error message states thats NY state will reject the return because no wage income has been allocated to NY.

Selecting "Don't Allocate this employer" seems to be. treated by the software as allocating 100% of the income as NY source income. That in turn then indicates that all MA state taxes that were paid should be refunded and NY should be owed state taxes.  This is clearly not correct. (In fact, when I return to the "Allocate Wages to New York" screen it has been set to "100% New York State income" by TurboTax.

Is there a way to have TurboTax prepare the state returns properly for e-filing?

[LenaH]

Yes. If you would like to have TurboTax prepare your taxes for you, please go to TurboTax Live with Full Service. With this service, you have a dedicated tax expert or CPA to prepare, sign, and file your return for you. You can review everything with your expert before they file knowing that your taxes are done right, backed by TurboTax's Expert Approved Guarantee.

@McAndrewEr

[McAndrewEr]

Does the suggestion to use TurboTax Live with Full Service mean that you do not know of a way to use the product I purchased, TurboTax Premier, to e-file my NY state taxes in this case?

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

There are circumstances that do not allow for e-filing.  If this is one such circumstance, you will need to mail in the return, even though the system may give you a big warning message of New York's "requirement" to e-file.  This requirement is waived when the software you are using (or your filing situation) cannot pass e-filing diagnostics.  

Although using Full Service is an option (and they would still use a version of TurboTax Premier, by the way), if New York cannot accept your return e-filed because of the situation itself, using Full Service won't change that.  It certainly is far more convenient to e-file, but some circumstances simply don't allow it.  If yours is one (in order to file accurately), then mail in the return.