If one of my W-2 forms has my full income duplicated in box 16 for my state of residence and for my state of employment, can I zero out box 16 for my state of residence?

[22185_03589]

My state of residence is Massachusetts and my state of employment is Rhode Island.  Duplicated income on the W-2 form causes the Massachusetts tax form to double my income.

[LindaS5247]

You will need to enter two state tax returns.  A Nonresident State Tax Return for RI and a Resident State Tax Return for MA.

It is recommended to prepare the nonresident state first, because your resident state will provide you a credit for the tax you pay to the nonresident state.  

The proper way to fill out the W-2 for multiple states is:

In Box 16 most states report the amount of wage that was earned in that state. So if you had state withholding in more than one state, you would see the first state listed in box 15 followed by the wage earned in that state in Box 16. Beneath that you would see the next state listed in Box 15 followed by the wage earned in that state in Box 16. When the two wage amounts listed in each of the Box 16  are added together they would total box 1 which is your Federal Wage amount.

Since your W-2 may be incorrectly completed you can do that but you could also request a corrected Form W-2 from your Employer.  That way your Form W-2 will be properly reported to the IRS.  Keep all Forms W-2 for your records in case questions arise later on.

Click here for additional information on filing multiple state returns.

Click here for information regarding filing multiple states returns.

Click here for how to delete your state return in TurboTax desktop.

Click here for how to delete your state tax return in TurboTax Online.  

[22185_03589]

I have requested a corrected W-2 form from my employer, but they ignore everything I present to them and just keep saying the W-2 form is correct.  They will not change the W-2.  My full income is listed in box 16 for both MA and RI.  For box 17, both MA and RI have state income tax listed, RI tax is much larger than MA tax.  If I manually zero out the MA box 16 income, will Turbo Tax allow this and properly handle the MA tax form?  Will this "raise a red flag" for an audit?

Thank you for your help.

[22185_03589]

Thanks Linda.  If I manually zero out the MA box 16 income, will turbotax allow this and will it properly handle the MA tax form?  Will this "raise a red flag" for an audit?  My employer refuses to change my W-2 form.

[Hal_Al]

Q.  If one of my W-2 forms has my full income duplicated in box 16 for my state of residence and for my state of employment, can I zero out box 16 for my state of residence?

A. Simple answer: Yes.  That will work if box 17, on the line with MA in box 15, is 0 or blank. 

[ErnieS0]

Another user reported they were unable to e-file Massachusetts with two state wage lines on Form W-2 when they reset MA wages to $0.

Try Tax Champ Hal-Al’s solution first. If that does not work, delete MA Boxes 15-20 on your W-2 if you have no MA tax withheld in Box 17 and Box 16 matches what RI is reporting, This will not impact your federal or state returns.

If you lived in Massachusetts and worked in Rhode Island, you do not need a Massachusetts line on your W-2 because RI is taxing your income and you are claiming a credit for RI tax on your MA return. 

[22185_03589]

Thanks.  Unfortunately, Box 17 for MA is not zero.  So it appears that zeroing out box 16 may not work.  I might just try it and see what happens, as I don't seem to have any other options.  

[AmyC]

Federal entry: You have MA state tax withheld from your job in RI so you can't leave the w2 row empty for MA. I entered a w2 with another state and wages, then entered MA below with the same wages and tax withheld. 

State entry: Go to MA, and select to review your entries. When you come to the screen that asks about state wages. Select NO these are not the correct wages.

The next screen asks MA wages only from MA on w2? Select YES

This will correct your income so only the MA wages are taxable.

[22185_03589]

Thanks for the reply.  However, I have a complication that won't allow that to work.  I also worked for another employer in RI, that only assigned my wages to a RI W-2, so they did not duplicate the wages for a MA W-2, so if I choose the option to only import MA wages into the MA tax form, the wages from this RI employer will not get accounted for in the MA tax form.  So it seems that I am stuck.  

[22185_03589]

Help.  Can any one provide a path forward for this situation? 

Right now, I don't have any options.  I don't believe anything suggested thus far will work.

[ErnieS0]

If I’m your question correctly, you have two W-2s. One W-2 has Rhode Island wages and income tax because you lived in Massachusetts and worked in Rhode Island. Your second W-2 has duplicate wages and RI and MA tax withheld for the same income.

If that’s the case, you can zero out the MA state wages on your W-2 so your total MA income will be correct. You will probably have to mail your return.

[22185_03589]

I ended up zeroing out the MA income on the W-2 form from the RI employer that duplicated my income on RI state wages and MA state wages (Box 16).  I did not change the MA state income tax (Box 17) on the same W-2 form.  This resulted in the MA tax form importing the correct amount for my total wages from both MA and RI.  

Despite making this manual change to the W-2 form, Turbotax still allowed me to file my MA tax return electronically.  Thank you to all who helped me, much appreciated!

[kotharibiren]

Hi, I am exactly in similar situation but in my case income in box 17 for the resident state (MA) is not zero? How do I claim the state income tax back. My situation below. 

I lived and worked in NY but same state wages are reported in box 16 for NY and CA. The reason I believe I have two W-2 from same employer because under employee name and address, it has my residence address as California. How do I claim my CA state income tax that has been withheld? 

[MonikaK1]

If you had California state taxes withheld, you would need to file a California state return to get them refunded. If you never lived in California, and so indicate in TurboTax, the program will prepare a nonresident return.

You should file any nonresident returns before your resident return. 

See also this TurboTax article on multiple-state situations.