You will still need to file a Pennsylvania part-year return.
Your employer did not withhold any state tax for PA but you still need to file the return.
When you say that you received two W-2s, did you change employers or did your employer just do two part-year W-2s?
Note that you will owe NY tax on that one month of commuting to NY, but PA should give you a credit for the amount of tax paid.
Thank you for your reply @BillM223
I am in the middle of filing the part-year PA return.
Same employer issued 2 W2s - 1 with nyc address & taxes, the 2nd with Philly Local income & taxes listed, just no State Income or taxes listed. When I come to the end of PA part-year, it says "something unusual is occurring" because there is no State Tax listed for my Commuting Expenses to be deducted from. So I'm not sure what to do there. Also, how do I get the credit for taxes paid tp NY? I didn't see that while doing the PA form.
Is the Box 1 amount (Wages) the same for both W-2s? If so, you will have to improvise because otherwise your federal income will be reported twice.
Or did your employer put your PA wages in Box 1 on the second W-2?
@BillM223 The W2 for PA only has information in Boxes 18, 19 & 20 (& 13). No other Numbered boxes are filled in (Boxes A-E also contain info). The NY W2 has all Wages in Box 1.
In this case, I would combine the two W-2s into one W-2.
I assume that the box 13 information is the same on both W-2s, right?
Go ahead and add the boxes 18-20 information to the first W-2 (in TurboTax, you can add the associated state, so TurboTax knows where it is going). This means that you will have NY state info and PA locality info on the same W-2 (I assume it will work).
And make sure to delete the second W-2.
See if this gets around the error.
@BillM223 So, I should go back to the Federal part to amend/delete the W2 info there? Can I have 2 different City/Local Wages/Taxes listed on 1 W2? Do I need to contact my former employer for a Corrected W2?
"Can I have 2 different City/Local Wages/Taxes listed on 1 W2?" Oh, you mean that the first W-2 had NYC taxes and now you will add the PA locality tax?
Well, there is more than line available for input for boxes 18-20, so I don't see why not. Like I said, give it a try.
And, yes, go back to the federal input interview and delete one W-2 and amend the other to include the PA locality information.
If this works, you won't need a corrected W-2, although you should write down notes about what you did in case anyone ever asks (the states get copies of your W-2s, so they will receive two W-2s, but hopefully when they see that the numbers are correct, this won't be a problem).
@BillM223 I went back to the W2 info & noticed I already did combine them into only having 1 W2 (sorry, I started this months ago & got overwhelmed and had to put it away for a bit for my sanity lol so I forgot I already did this). Do you have any other suggestions for me?
Sanity is a good thing 😉
Are you getting any error messages?
As for your Philadelphia local tax, you might review this post in case it answers any questions that you might have - https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/state-taxes/discussion/how-do-i-file-my-city-taxes-for-philadelphia/00/180094
Oh, your NY state tax should be automatically handled as a credit on your PA return, but do look to make sure.
I haven't encountered any error messages yet, just confusing ones that make me think there is going to be a problem, and wanted to clear it up before proceeding. That link you provided was also confusing, lol, but thank you for sending the information you could find. Sorry for the delay in responding - I realized I was missing something important to include in my taxes and I'm still trying to chase it down before I can continue.
As for checking to make sure the credit appears on the PA return, what am I looking for, and where (when I get there)?
@BillM223 Hi Bill! I'm trying to finish up, and that credit for NY you mentioned making sure appears on my PA return is showing as $0. I clicked 'edit' and it is asking for Double-taxed income from NY & to enter the amount taxed by both NY & PA. I am at a complete loss of what to fill in here. There is a "New York Amount" column & a "Your Amount" column. How do I determine this/where is that info found? Thank you so much for all of your help so far. I am stuck here & can not proceed.
An example of double-taxed income is income you earned while living in Pennsylvania but were still working for that New York company. New York is going to tax that money, but so is Pennsylvania because you were living in PA at the time.
"There is a "New York Amount" column & a "Your Amount" column" I can't picture this screen. Which state is it in? And what is the heading at the top of the screen? And you are filing part-year resident returns on both states, right?
I did the NY Return 1st and am now on the PA Return.
Taxes Paid to Other States Summary shows New York Credit = $0. I click Edit.
Other State= New York (continue)
@BillM223 I am noticing on my PA return under Compensation Summary The Totals under my Employer info is blank. It says "Edit each compensation entry you want to adjust for PA purposes. If your compensation was not earned while a PA resident or from PA sources you will need to edit the entry". So, I click Edit. Should "Make this income Taxable in PA" be checked, or keep it unchecked?
Any guidance on this @BillM223 ? I'm completely stuck on this part and desperately need to complete these taxes. Thank you so much for the help you've given so far!
Please Please Please @BillM223 ...I'm running out of time. I'm begging for your help to finish up this issue that you were trying to help me with.
Let's do this.
When you enter your W-2, there is a NY entry for boxes 15-17 for NY but none for PA, right?
Let's pretend that you earned all of that New York (the entire W-2) while you still lived in New York, and that you did not earned any of it in PA.
I do not know what other income you have. Calculate a percentage (ratio) of the time you lived in NY and the time you lived in PA. These should add up to 100%.
Then, for any income that you received over the course of the year (like interest or pension income), multiply that amount by the ratio for each state and enter that amount for that state in each state's interview (the interview for each state should ask you what amount of this or that income item belongs to this state).
If you received a one-time item, then allocate it to the state that you were living in when you received it (like an IRA distribution).
Go through both interviews, and then check the state incomes and see if the income for NY plus the income for PA add up to your federal income. If they do, declare Victory. If they don't, check to see if the difference is due to something not taxed the same in PA and NY (like pension distributions, which are taxed in NY depending on the source, but not in PA in most cases).
I am sorry that this is so complicated, but the test I have has a lot of extraneous other income items, which makes it hard to see how you should be doing it...so, let's hope that your return is simple, that you can allocate all income items to either NY or PA or split the income (not the wage income - other income types as I noted above) by the ratio you calculated, and then let's see if your two state incomes are reasonable.
As for your local tax, let's work on that when you get the state incomes right.