Basically that is what happens. But there are subtleties. (NY will tax you only on money made in NY, CT will tax you on income you earn worldwide, but give you a credit for tax paid to other states).
You should do the NY non-resident return first because you need to know the amount you owe to NY for the CT credit. That might reduce your CT tax to zero, it might not depending upon the different state rates and deductions and the like.
Here is CT's article on this:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1462&q=266294
Your employer should probably be withholding taxes for NY (place of work) not CT (residence).
Makes sense but its annoying. Yes i'll speak to them about the withholding. Any idea if because it's a full years worth of state taxes about $8k does this slow down the return from CT? Would like to be able to hand the refund straight to NY.
I don't think it should slow down the refund, but you never know.
You may want to give your employer a copy of NY Form 2104.1. Here's a link to that form: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it2104_1_fill_in.pdf">https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it2104_1_fill_in.pdf</a>
This makes sense for NY State and CT State, but what about the separate New York City tax? As people who have lived in NYC know, in addition to the state income tax, NYC charges yet another separate income tax. Are individuals living in CT but working in NYC subject to this additional tax as well?
@adamgotlin --
No. Nonresidents of New York City are not liable for New York City personal income tax.