Residency and Out-Of-State College Internship

[Austin Barton]

Hello,

This is going to be somewhat of a long-winded question sheet but I have many questions so please bear with me.

1. Residency - I am from Texas but attending college in Missouri. My parents are paying for my tuition and planned to write me as off as a dependent to get credit for the ~$16,000. I will make over ~$10,000 in the state of Missouri (through the internship) and planned to stay here over the summer. However, in order to qualify for residency in the state of MO, nobody can claim you as a dependent. Is there a way to get around this? Would I have to declare that money as income and be taxed on it? 

2. Internship - I have an internship and they decided to keep me on as a part-time remote worker. The office is in Texas, and the headquarters is in Rhode Island (where my paychecks are signed.) Because I don't think I'm eligible for residency, would I need to change my W-4 to my dorm address for the duration of the school year or just keep it to Texas? Do I need to file a federal tax return through texas and a non-resident tax return through MO? Do I need to file a new W-2? 

Thank you so much for the help, and please let me know if there are any more important details I don't know about. 

Austin

[Austin Barton]

Any takers?

[TomD8 · Accepted solution]

You must file a federal tax return regardless of your state of residence.

If your main, permanent home is in TX, and you are in MO temporarily in order to attend school, then for state tax purposes you remain a resident of TX.  In tax terminology, TX is your domicile.   TX, as I'm sure you know, has no state income tax.  However, any income you earn in MO, including remote work done in MO for your employer in RI, is taxable by MO.  (The remote work is NOT taxable by RI if you never physically work in RI.) ) Therefore you should request your employers to withhold MO taxes.  You will file a non-resident MO tax return** at year's end to report your income.

**If you maintain a "permanent place of abode" (such as a rented apartment) in MO, and you spend        more than 183 days of the tax year in MO, then you would file your MO return as a resident.  Note that a college dormitory is NOT a "permanent place of abode" for tax purposes.

https://dor.mo.gov/pdf/nonres_flowchart.pdf

Where do you want your employer(s) to mail your W-2's next January?  That's the address you should put on your W-4's.  But make sure your employer(s) withhold MO taxes.