Virginia resident, NY full time stuudent, $5700 taxable income but $0 amount of tax for VA state taxes.

[kulmayk]

I am a full-time student at a university in New York and a resident of Virginia.  After deductions and exemptions, my taxable income (all made in NY) is $5700 but I have $0 in amount of tax.  

Looking at this site, https://www.individual.tax.virginia.gov/calculators/income-tax-calculator.cfm, I am supposed to pay $157 and last year, I had to pay as well.  Is this some error or is it correct for some reason?  I can't seem to find any reasoning and don't want to submit until I do.

[TomD8]

If you're single, you're not even required to file a Virginia tax return unless your VA adjusted gross income is equal to or greater than $11,950.  See this:  https://www.tax.virginia.gov/who-must-file

[kulmayk]

I'd like to get some of my taxes refunded though.  Additionally, according to https://www.individual.tax.virginia.gov/calculators/income-tax-calculator.cfm my taxable income definitely qualifies for tax ($120 + 5% of excess over $5,000)

[TomD8]

If VA taxes were withheld from your pay, you're correct that you would have to file a VA tax return in order to get those refunded.

If you have to file a non-resident NY return, be sure to complete that first, before you do your home state VA return.  You can find NY's filing requirements for non-residents here:  

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/file/nonresidents.htm

[kulmayk]

I did the NY non-resident form first and already have some credit.  But regardless of that my base tax for virginia (before subtracting credits) is 0 despite my taxable income which is what I am confused about.

[TomD8 · Accepted solution]

Look at Line 9 of the VA tax return, which you can see here:  

https://www.tax.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/taxforms/individual-income-tax/2019/760-2019.pdf

It states that for filing status 1 (Single), if your VA adjusted gross income is less than $11,950, your tax is zero.

That's why you're not required to file a VA return if your VA AGI is below that level.  But as stated before, you would have to file if you wanted a refund of any withheld VA taxes.