I live in texas my w-2 is from oklahoma I did the work in new mexico what state do I file under

[IsabellaG · Accepted solution]

If you did the work in New Mexico, then that's the state where you earned the income, and you should file a return there. It would be either a Nonresident return or a Part-year resident return, depending on your situation. Texas doesn't have an income tax, so there's no return required. As for Oklahoma, you should only file a tax return there as a Nonresident if your W-2 has withholding for OK, and you want to get it back. Sometimes employers handle the withholding incorrectly when you work in a different state from the one where the company is based. 

[Out7Out]

Hello there, I live in Texas but work in Oklahoma. I am in the casino industry and when I worked at a previous casino in Oklahoma, I remember paying in say $2,400 to the Oklahoma State tax and always receiving at least 50% of it back on my State return. For some reason, this year I paid in $1,800 to the Oklahoma State Tax and I have to pay THEM $1. Why? Shouldn't I get most of it back since I live in Texas and don't reside in there state? Any help would be very much appreciated!

[GeorgeM777]

Your question is a difficult to answer without knowing the full extent your 2021 tax return and how it compares to previous returns.  The OK Tax Commission, in their 2021 income tax guide, explains how OK determines the tax for non-residents (and part-year residents) in the following manner:

"The Oklahoma taxable income of a part-year individual or nonresident individual shall be calculated as if all income were earned in Oklahoma, using Form 511-NR. The Federal Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) will be adjusted using the Oklah oma adjustments, allowed in 68 Oklahoma Statutes (OS) Section 2358, to arrive at AGI from all sources. The AGI from all sources is used to determine the taxable income.  After the taxable income is calculated, it is prorated using a percentage of the AGI from Oklahoma sources divided by the AGI from all sources. This prorated tax is the Oklahoma tax."

Based on the above, the starting point for OK when determining the tax for a non-resident is to look at the taxpayer's income from all sources.  That would include your casino wages as well as any other income you earned.  OK will then apply various adjustments to arrive at your adjusted gross income.  It is this AGI that is used to determine the taxable income; however the taxable income is prorated in that the AGI from OK sources, such as your casino wages, is divided by the AGI from all sources.  The resulting number is what OK uses to determine the appropriate tax for a OK non-resident.  

The fact that you owe money this year versus getting a refund in prior years, could be the result of you earning more money this year versus the prior year.  You might want to review your prior year return, the one with a refund, and compare it to this year's return and see what differences you can find.