Working Remote in New York

[smaines]

I work remotely from New York. My employer is based in Rhode Island and my state taxes were paid to Rhode Island. I'm not really sure where to go from here with filing state taxes. Any help is appreciated.

[TomD8]

If you're a resident of New York, ALL your income is taxable by New York, regardless of where you earned it.  Therefore you must file a New York tax return.

Rhode Island can only tax a non-resident on income earned from work  actually (physically) performed in Rhode Island.  Therefore, if you never lived in, or physically worked in, Rhode Island, your income is not taxable by Rhode Island.  Some states tax non-resident remote workers, but Rhode Island is not one of them.  If this is your situation, and your employer mistakenly withheld RI taxes, you'd have to file a non-resident RI return, showing zero RI income, in order to have those taxes refunded to you.  I suggest you file that return on paper, and attach a letter of explanation.

Finally, if your employer will not or cannot withhold NY taxes, you may want to start making quarterly estimated tax payments to NY.

[smaines]

Thank you, @TomD8 Tom! I did have to travel to Rhode Island several times to work out of the office (maybe 6-7 times for 3 days each time). Would this be considered physically working in Rhode Island? Thank you, again. This is very helpful!

[TomD8]

@smaines -- Yes, that's considered physically working in Rhode Island, and the income you earn on those days is taxable by RI (as well as by NY).  

Since you have RI income, you file a non-resident RI return reporting that income, in addition to your resident NY tax return reporting ALL your income.

You'll be able to take a credit on your NY return for the taxes you pay to RI on the income that is taxed by both states, so you won't be double-taxed.

In TurboTax, be sure to complete your non-resident return before you do your home state return, so that the credit flows properly.  In the personal info section of TT, enter your state of residence as NY and indicate that you had other state income from RI.  That will prompt the program to generate the correct state tax forms.