Lived in GA, But Employer Took Out NY State Taxes For 1 Month

[cpmcilwain]

I worked for an employer for two total months in 2024.

For one month, they took out NY state taxes, even though I live in GA.

For the second month, they took out GA taxes, and no NY taxes.

How do I go about getting my NY state taxes I paid refunded to me through the Turbo Tax Free online filing system? Right now, it looks like it's going to refund me the $287 I paid to NY, but it's still telling me I owe $370 to GA, which doesn't seem right.

What am I doing wrong?

[ThomasM125]

You have to file a New York non-resident tax return to get a refund of taxes paid there in error.

You may not be doing anything wrong. Since you didn't have taxes withheld for Georgia for one month, it is likely you will owe taxes to Georgia for that month. Since you are getting the taxes back from New York for the month they should have been applied to Georgia, that explains why you owe Georgia taxes, as the $287 refund from New York represents the bulk of the taxes you owe to Georgia.

[Edited 3/3/25 at 10:02 AM PST]

@cpmcilwain 

[cpmcilwain]

@ThomasM125 I believe you may have misspoke. I need to file a non-resident for NY, correct? I live in Georgia.

I could see if the amount I owe Georgia is similar, but it looks to be much more than what I'm getting back from NY.

[ThomasM125]

Yes, I meant New York, you need to file a non-resident return there. You can't come to a simple conclusion that the New York tax withheld is directly related to the deficiency in the Georgia tax liability.  The taxes applicable to your income in New York would be different than the taxes applicable in Georgia. Also, you don't know what criteria your employer used to determine the tax to withhold in New York. Furthermore, your taxes in other months may have been under-withheld in Georgia, so part of the balance due may be from matters unrelated to the tax withheld in New York.