Lived in NJ and worked in NYC for 9 months. Made an error when filing my taxes for both NJ and NY - is it too late to fix?

[Juliablk15]

I lived in NJ for 9 months in 2020 and worked in NYC. I reported the change to my employer and they did have my NY tax withheld for those 9 months I had lived in NJ. 

I filed my NY Resident Income Tax Return for the 3 months I lived in NYC at the beginning before moving to NJ, but unfortunately did not file the NY Nonresident Tax Return for the months in NJ, which I believe would have allowed me to apply for a credit when filing for the NJ Tax resident return. I received a letter from IRS stating I owe a good amount of taxes to NJ, which I'm under the impression is due to the missing NY nonresident form. Is it possible or too late to make a tax amendment and file my NY nonresident tax return? Would I have to amend my NJ Tax resident turn as well?

[fanfare]

Did you file a New Jersey resident return and pay the tax due?

If not, why not?

If yes, why do they ask for more tax payment?

You can always amend.

Since NJ and NY have funny rules, for best results, you must be careful to do it correctly.

NJ does not have a part-year resident filing status,

If your NY return is correct, just apply the tax paid to NY as a credit on your amended NJ Resident return.

That's Schedule NJ-COJ.

[Juliablk15]

Yes, I filed NJ resident return and received the letter of the amount I owe yesterday. 

However, I think the amount I owe is not correct since I didn't get the chance to apply the tax I paid to NY as a credit. My understanding is that I should have filed a nonresident NY return (IT 203) first in order to then apply for the credit on my NJ tax  resident return.

Since I didn't do this though, I am wondering if I can still send the NY nonresident return and then amend NJ resident return afterwards? 

[TomD8]

@Juliablk15 --

If you moved your permanent home (your domicile in tax terminology) from NY to NJ during 2020, then for tax purposes you file as a part-year resident of each of the two states for that year.  NJ does not have a part-year resident tax form, but its regular tax form NJ-1040 has a line where part-year residents indicate their dates of residence in NJ.  All your income after your move to NJ is taxable by NJ.

NY can tax all your income during your resident period and all your NY-source income during your non-resident period.  If you've already filed NY Form IT-203 and included both these incomes, there is no need to amend.   Pages 18-19 of this reference give a worksheet and an explanation as to how part-year NY residents should allocate their income:

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it203i.pdf

You can take a credit on your NJ return for the taxes paid to NY on the portion of your NY income that was also taxable by NJ.   If you failed to claim this credit on your original NJ return, then you can amend.

[Juliablk15]

Thank you. I did not file IT 203. I did however file IT 201 for the time I was a part-year resident in NYC. Am I still able to file the IT 203 and then amend my NJ tax return for the credit?

I understand I can amend my NJ tax return, but I am asking about whether filing IT 203 is still an option or not. 

[TomD8]

New York's instructions are to use Form IT-203-X if you mistakenly filed Form IT-201, but you were a nonresident or part-year resident.

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it203x_fill_in.pdf

When you do the amended return in TT, be sure your residency information is correct in the personal info section.  Your "state of residence" should be NJ (the state of which you were a resident on 12/31/2020), and be sure you indicated that you lived in another state (NY) during that year.  The move date is the date you began living in your new permanent home in NJ.  This should prompt the program to generate Form IT-203-X.  (I'm not 100% certain because I don't have the NY software on my computer.)