Living and working in different cities (NYS)

[ksgate88]

My daughter moved from Syracuse, NY to Brooklyn, NY in 2021.  She works remotely from Brooklyn, for her Syracuse-based company.  Simply specifying the Brooklyn address as her permanent residence caused her small refund to become a $1000+ penalty owed to New York State.  Is this legitimate, given that she doesn't actually work in Brooklyn?  She doesn't earn her salary from any New York City location.

[ErnieS0]

Yes. New York City residents pay New York City income tax. This is part of the New York state tax return.

Her employer should have withheld NYC income tax based on the Brooklyn address.

Check Boxes 18-20 on your daughter’s W-2 to make sure the NYC wages and withholding are correct.

You may need to do a part-year NYC wage allocation to adjust NYC wages:

1. Go to Your City Residency Information
2. Select Edit on About You
3. Select Part-year resident on New York City Residency Information for You
4. Enter dates for your Part-year Residency Period
5. Skip Yonkers
6. Edit your job on Your Wages Summary
7. Change the amount on Wages Information to Wages Earned while living in NYC
8. On Your New York City Wages, select Earned 100% as resident if you made an adjustment on the previous screen to show NYC-only wages

[ksgate88]

Thank you for your response.  Boxes 18-20 on her W-2 have no values.   

[LenaH]

If boxes 18-20 of her W-2 have no values, then her employer did not withhold the appropriate NYC taxes from her pay. 

Please have her contact her employer to start NYC withholding as soon as possible. 

@ksgate88