college student

[rkgraham]

I am a college student from Kansas going to school in New York.  I file taxes independent of my parents. I earned income in New York while attending school.  Do I file state taxes in my home state or state where I earned income?

[DMarkM1]

It depends.  If you had no other income except from NY sources which you have to pay NY taxes on anyway,  you lived in NY substantially all year, and there were no KS taxes withheld I suggest you file as NY resident only and not file in KS.  

The difference in NY resident and nonresident taxation is basically as a NY resident NY taxes all income from all sources but as a nonresident NY only taxes NY source income.  So if your only income was NY source then there will not be a difference in your NY taxes.  

If for some reason you wanted to keep KS as your domicile state you would file in KS as a resident with nothing but NY income and claim a credit on your KS return for taxes paid to NY.  Since NY taxes are higher than KS your KS tax would be zero.  

However, if you had income from sources outside of NY then as an undergrad student in NY for school as a full-time student, you can file as NY non-resident and allocate only NY income to NY.   

Assuming since you are not a dependent of your parents in KS, you still maintain ties to KS (registered to vote there, driver's license, car registration for example), lived there for a substantial part of the year (went back there when not in school) and intend to return there after graduation, you could still be a resident of KS and file there as resident on all income/all sources. You would claim a credit on your KS return for taxes paid to NY on that NY income to mitigate the double taxation.

Finally, if there was no other income outside of NY, but KS taxes were withheld, then you file as NY resident and KS nonresident to claim a refund of those taxes withheld for KS. Be sure to submit a W4 to your employer to change state withholding to NY so you won't have to file in KS going forward.

[TomD8]

You file in both states.  NY can tax the income you earn from work performed in NY.  Your resident state of KS can tax all your income, regardless of where earned.

You'll be able to claim a credit on your KS return for the taxes paid to NY, so you won't be double-taxed.

In TurboTax, be sure to complete your non-resident NY return before you do your home state KS return, so that the program can correctly calculate and apply the credit.

[Hal_Al]

You file in both states. 

The general rule is: your report all your income on your home state return, even the income earned out of state. You file a non-resident state return for the state you worked in and pay tax to that state. Your home state will give you a credit, or partial credit, for what you paid the non-resident state. You will have to file a non resident NY state return and pay NY tax on the income earned there.. You will also file a KS full year resident return and calculate tax on ALL your income. KS will give you a credit, or partial credit, for the tax you pay NY. So, there will be little or no double taxation, but you have the cost and hassle of filing two state returns. Do the nonresident state return first.

An out-of-state college student is still considered a resident of the state he came from, unless he takes concrete steps to establish residency in the college state (unusual).

You say " I file taxes independent of my parents."

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test.

A child of a taxpayer can still be a “Qualifying Child” (QC) dependent, regardless of his/her income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support. Scholarships are excluded from the support calculation
3. He lived with the parent (including temporary absences such as away at school) for more than half the year

So, it doesn't matter how much he earned. What matters is how much he spent on support. Money he put into savings does not count as support he spent on himself.

The support value of the home, provided by the parent, is the fair market rental value of the home plus utilities & other expenses divided by the number of occupants.

The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to help with the support calculation. See: http://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/teacher/worksheet_for_determining_support_4012.pdf

Scholarships and support  https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/college-education/discussion/re-calculating-support-with-scholarsh...

Treatment is different for QR vs QC

Furthermore, there is a rule that says IF somebody else CAN claim him as a dependent, he is not allowed to claim himself. If he has sufficient income (usually more than $12,950), he can & should still file taxes. In TurboTax, he indicates that somebody else can claim him as a dependent, at the personal information section.  TT will check that box on form 1040.

Even if he had less, he is allowed to file if he needs to get back income tax withholding. He cannot get back social security or Medicare tax withholding.

With the tax law change, effective 2018, most students will get the same refund whether they claim themselves or not. The personal exemption has been eliminated and the standard deduction increased. However, you only qualify for an education credit or deduction, if you are not a dependent.