Living in multiple states

[sunnyssim96]

Hi, 

I am trying file my own taxes this year but I am confused as to what my residency status (resident, part-year resident, or a non-resident) is in all the states I lived in, in the year of 2023. 

Background information is, I am a permanent resident in Colorado (I live at home with my parents and that is the state I hold my driver's license in). I am a nurse and I signed my first travel assignment in 2023 in California which lasted from 1/1/23 through 4/30/23. I came back to Colorado for maybe 4 days (?) and I moved straight to Pennsylvania because I had gotten into grad school which started mid-May and lived here till the end of the year. So these are my questions:

1. What is my residency status in all these states? CO, CA, and PA?

2. Am I required to file taxes in state of Colorado even though I did not make any income in this state? 

3. Rolled over 401k from my old job to my Roth IRA and I have earned some dividends from stocks, which states am I claiming these earnings to?

I am just very confused as what I need to do! If you have any similar experiences as me, I would greatly appreciate it if you could help!

[MarilynG1]

You are a Resident of Colorado and report all your income there.  CO gives you credit for any tax you paid on part of your income to other states, so you're not double-taxed.

You can file a Non-Resident State Return to Pennsylvania (if you earned any income there while in school for eight months).  If not, you would not be required to file in PA.  

For California, you would also be considered a Non-Resident, but you would report your earnings there.

You can allocate your unearned income by the % of the year lived in that state.  TurboTax will help you calculate that.  

Here's more info on  Allocating Income for a Part-Year Resident.

To report your 401K to Roth Rollover, enter your 1099-R and on the follow-up screens, indicate your rollover to a Roth IRA.

@sunnyssim96 

[Edited 3/13/2024 |3:59 pm]

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

Q 1. What is my residency status in all these states? CO, CA, and PA?

A 1. From what you described*, you are a full year resident of CO. You will file a resident CO return, reporting all your income. CO will give you a credit for tax paid to any other state. You will file a CA non resident return and pay CA tax on you CA source income.  You will not file a PA return, just for being a student there, unless you also earned income there. In which case you will file a PA non resident return. CO will give you a credit for that too. 

Q 2. Am I required to file taxes in state of Colorado even though I did not make any income in this state? 

A 2. Yes. This is the general rule: The income is work state (WS) source income since it was earned there. Resident States (RS) tax all their resident's income, regardless of where earned. You will file a non-resident tax return for the WS and report the WS income. You will file a full year resident return for the RS, reporting all your income. The RS will give you a credit, or partial credit for any tax paid to the WS.

Q 3. Rolled over 401k from my old job to my Roth IRA and I have earned some dividends from stocks, which states am I claiming these earnings to?

A 3. Report that only on your CO resident return. 

*Your time in CA is clearly a temporary absence from your resident state. Being away at school is (almost) always considered as a temporary absence. 

[sunnyssim96]

Thank you so much for explaining this so thoroughly! This clarified so much of my questions. 

I am also working in PA but I plan to move back to Colorado as soon as I am done with grad school. I will file as a non-resident in PA.