Live in MA and worked for a company in IL

[MGTess]

Hi,

My husband worked for a company from Illinois - from 9/21- 12/21 - but resides in Massachusetts; I am confused on how to go about filing the state income taxes.  Could anyone help me with this topic?  Much appreciated.

MTess

[DMarkM1 · Accepted solution]

It depends on the circumstances.  Did your husband physically work in IL during the year?  If the answer is "Yes" then you will file a non-resident return for IL. Did IL withhold taxes as shown on a form W2?  Then "Yes" you need to file a non-resident IL return to claim a refund of those taxes withheld in error. 

1. In the "My Info" section scroll down to the "Other State Income" 
2. Indicate "Yes" you earned income in another state
3. Select "IL" from the dropdown menu
4. This will generate the non-resident return.
5. Enter all the income including the IL W2 in the federal "Income" tab to match your forms W2
6. Then you can start your IL state return interview. 
7. In the "Income" section of that interview you will be asked to allocate each of your income sources in IL as appropriate. 
8. If the W2 has an IL line (Box 15-17) then the wages will already be there. 
9. If however, if your husband did not physically work in IL, then you will need to enter zero for the wages to be taxed by IL.
10. You will indicate none of the other income sources are IL as well.
11. At the end of the IL state interview take note of any income that was taxed by IL and any tax assessed.  You will use those numbers to complete your resident MA state return. 
12. Since your resident state taxes all income from all sources you will claim a credit for taxes paid to another state, if any, to mitigate the double taxation, if any.

[MGTess]

Dear DMarkM1,

Many thanks for the reply.  Could you please clarify the "in error" part of your answer?  The company took taxes knowingly and not in error.  Is this just a tax term to go around resolving the issue?  Also, he did not physically work in Illinois.  He went there occasionally.  Waiting anxiously for your reply,

Thank you again,

MGTess

[DMarkM1]

Yes, if taxes were withheld by the IL company and your husband had not physically worked in IL then the taxes were withheld "in error".  However, since your husband did have some days working in IL, taxes did need to be withheld.  You will have to allocate based on the days working in IL.  

You will need to figure out the total days available to work between 9/21 and 12/21 (this excludes weekends/holidays).  Divide the income by that number of days and then multiply that result by the number of days actually worked in IL.  This will be the wage income allocated to IL.