Live in KS, work in MO, but box 15 for state withholding says VA. How do I file my state taxes?!

[siebertclan]

I live in KS, and I work in MO but their home office is in VA.  My employer address on the W2 has their MO location address.   I have no idea what the correct way is to file my state income tax return(s)!  Is it perfectly fine that my employer put VA since that's where their home office is, even though I actually work at their MO location?  My W2 has VA in box 15, and my whole wage from box 1 also shows in box 16 and there's $411.09 of state income tax w/h in box 17. 

[Vanessa A]

 Is it perfectly fine that my employer put VA since that's where their home office is, even though I actually work at their MO location?  My W2 has VA in box 15, and my whole wage from box 1 also shows in box 16 and there's $411.09 of state income tax w/h in box 17. No.  Even though you do not live or work in VA, you will still need to file a VA return to get the taxes withheld back.  

You will also need to file a MO Non-Resident return and a KS resident return. You will need to do the MO Non-Resident return first, then you will claim a credit for taxes you paid to KS on your resident return.  

Your VA return can be done in any order, however, when you do your VA Non-Resident return, you will enter $0 for your income and then the $411.09 as taxes withheld.  This will result in a full refund of your taxes withheld for the wrong state.

If your employer has not already made the change, be sure they change your withholdings to MO and/or KS.  if they only withhold for one of the states, then you can have them withhold for MO and if you have a tax liability this year after you get the MO credit on your KS return, you can make quarterly payments to KS.  

In general, your home state will tax all in come from all sources.  What you will do is you will file a nonresident return for the states that you do not reside in, but you visit for work and earn money in.  When you file, you will fille out your nonresident states first.  Then you will fill out your resident state, claiming a credit for taxes paid to the nonresident states on your home state return.  You may or may not still end up owing money to your resident state depending on whether or not their tax rate is higher or lower than your nonresident state.  If the non resident state had a higher tax rate than your resident state, your credit will be limited to the amount of tax you would have paid to your resident state.  They will not give you a refund of the taxes you paid to the nonresident state. 

Multiple States

File Non Resident State Return