Non-resident ny return... why is it counting my entire income, and not just the portion from ny?

[rjs]

It's not "counting" your entire income. The first page of New York Form IT-203 has two columns for income. The first column is federal amounts, and the second column is New York amounts. The federal amounts on lines 1 through 19 should be the same as on your federal tax return, and include all your income. The New York column should include only your New York income.

The way New York calculates the tax, it first calculates tax on your entire federal income, after New York adjustments. But then it applies an "income percentage" that is your New York income as a percentage of your total income. That's how it adjusts the tax based on how much of your income is taxable by New York. You can see this on page 3 of Form IT-203, on lines 45 and 46.

[AmyC]

NY figures out the amount of tax on your entire income and then prorates it based on the amount actually earned in NY.  It looks confusing on the return because it shows all income and the next line is NY tax.  Keep going and you will see the NY percentage

1. The Federal AGI is used as a denominator and the NY only income as the numerator to calculate the percentage of income earned in NY. on line 45.
2. NY determines the tax on your entire federal income, line 37, then multiplies the tax times the percentage just determined to create your actual tax on line 50.
3. Tax withheld on line 62

For example:

NY tax on your federal income is $8,000

But only 10% of your income was earned in NY

NY tax liability will be 10% of $8,000 or $800.

Let me get you to preview your return and check.

• If you are using the online version:
  1. go to Tax Tools,
  2. then select Tools,
  3. select View Tax Summary,
  4. on the left side, select Preview My 1040.
• In the desktop program, switch to forms mode.