State is taxing income earned as a nonresident

[mm4]

i recently moved to nyc and in my state tax review, it appears that i am being taxed for income that i earned before i moved to this state. is this accurate?

[ToddL · Accepted solution]

Yes, what you are seeing is accurate, but   NYS (or NYC) is not taxing the income you made before you became a resident.

Your total 2016 pay appears in the NY forms, summaries and interviews because NY uses your entire AGI to calculate your tax on NY income.  They do this  even if you were a resident of New York for 1 day

It isn't, however, as bad as it appears. They calculate what your New York tax would have been if you earned everything in NY, but then prorate that tax based on how much of your income was earned while a NY resident. 

For example, if the NY tax on your entire 2016 income was $10,000 but only 30% was earned as a NY resident, your NY tax would be 30% of $10,000 = 3,000.

Why do they do this? So they can tax your NY income at the highest possible tax rate, based on your entire AGI.