What should I do if I don't know how much income I earned as a resident of a city, when I moved part way through the year?

[DawnC]

You will have to estimate to allocate the income.   Allocating earned income is easy if you stopped working for an employer in one state and started working elsewhere after you moved. All you need to do is look at your W-2 or 1099-MISC.  Allocate the income from your former job to your former state and your income from the new job to your new state.

What if you continue working at the same job while living in 2 different states? Some companies will send you a W-2 with the state totals listed, others will send you two separate W-2’s for each state. If not or they didn't change the withholding to the second state, then you’ll have to estimate how much income you earned as a resident of one state versus the other.  To see examples, click this link.  

[mariecirenza]

What if I simply moved cities in the same state? Also, it was an hourly wage job, and my hours varied greatly from week to week. And they changed the wage at some point. Essentially, I have no way of estimating it with anything close to accuracy. And I have quit the job since, so I can't log in to the site in order to look at the past paychecks.

[JohnW152]

In your situation, all you can do is use the information you have and come up with a reasonable computation.  Just do the best you can.

You don't have to spend a lot of time doing it -- just create a document, list your income, and make what you think is a reasonable allocation of income per city.  Note on the document why you're doing the allocation this way -- basically, the information you've provided here.  In the event you don't remember the circumstances behind the computation, this will be helpful.

Then, use those amounts on your return(s) and keep the document with your tax records.  It's unlikely that anyone from the state (or city) will ever need to see it, but if they do, you'll be able to show that you made a good-faith effort in your computations.