Moving States

[anthonymarkevitch]

Currently, I both reside and work in VA. I just received an employment offer in NY for me to start in March. My VA apartment lease ends in July. Because my lease contract states that breaking the lease early would require payment of the remaining month's rents (meaning that if I were to move in March, I'd be paying VA & NY rents until July), I'm thinking of moving in with my parents in NY in March while still paying the VA apartment's rent, which would avoid me paying rents in two states.

What kind of tax filing headaches does this create? Would I be considered a resident of NY for the tax year, since most of my employment for the year would be in NY or would I be considered a resident of VA for the tax year, since most of my apartment lease for the year would be in VA?

[xmasbaby0]

It is not about your lease.   It is about where you LIVE and where you WORK.   When you move to NY, you start paying NY tax as soon as you are living and working there.  Move out of VA, you stop living and working there----so you will file a part year VA return for the income earned while living and working in VA, and a part year NY return for the time that you live and work in NY.   

[TomK2023]

Your residency status for income tax purposes will be as follows:

You are a New York State resident for income tax purposes if:

• your domicile is New York State (see Exception below); or
• you maintain a permanent place of abode in New York State for substantially all of the taxable year and spend 184 days or more in New York State during the taxable year, whether or not you are domiciled in New York State for any portion of the taxable year. Note: Any part of a day is a day for this purpose.

You are a New York State part-year resident if you meet the definition of resident or nonresident for only part of the year

New York State - Department of Taxation and Finance - Income tax definitions 

Resident -- A person who lives in Virginia, or maintains a place of abode here, for more than 183 days during the year, or who is a legal (domiciliary) resident of the Commonwealth, is considered a Virginia resident for income tax purposes. Residents file Form 760.

Part-Year Resident -- A person who moves into Virginia during the year with the intent of becoming a resident, or a person who moves out of Virginia during the year to become a resident of another state, is a part-year resident for income tax purposes. Part-year residents generally file Form 760PY. 

Virginia Department of Taxation - Residency Status 

[Opus 17]

You need to break your lease on or before June 30.  

If you break your lease (or it ends normally) on or before June 30, then you are a part-year resident of VA from January until the day you move into your parents, and you are a part-year resident of New York starting on the day you move in with your parents.  Your domicile, for tax purposes, is determined partly by your intent, and if your intent is to leave Virginia permanently and live in New York, that will determine the day you change your domicile.  This is a normal tax situation and Turbotax handles this easily.  VA will tax you for income earned while you lived in VA, and NY will tax you for income you earned while living in NY.  (Other income like interest, dividends, and so on, are taxed based on where you were living on the date they were paid.)

However, even if you change your domicile, VA will tax you if you maintain an abode in Virginia for 183 or more days,  even if you don't use it.  (There is a technical definition of abode but we don't need to go into it, since an apartment clearly qualifies.)  If you have a Virginia abode on July 1, 2024, Virginia may want to tax you for the whole year.