"Zip code not valid for state entered on Form W-2"; living and working in different states

[rkhill23]

Hi,

This past year I worked at a travel job in Indiana (where I lived in a hotel for 2.5 months, and commuted back to my home state of Ohio on the weekends). Therefore I was told I did not have taxes withheld in Indiana. On my Indiana W2 my address has my home address in OH (zip code) but Box 15 says "IN" for Indiana. I then transferred within the company to work in my home state. Because this was an internal transfer, Box 15 copied over with the code "IN" for Indiana. When I went to file both W2 forms, I received the error code above, that my zip code is not valid for state entered on W2. I contacted my HR to ask if they can fix it, and they said they have to reach out to corporate (which has already taken a long time; and I am concerned because companies are not required to help if there is an incorrect address (which is not exactly the case, I believe the state of withholding is incorrect). Can I manually input the correct state of OH myself to e-file? Or do I send in my incorrect W2 forms by mail? Or do I need my employer to give me corrected W2 forms before I file? I tried to call the IRS with no luck. Any advice would be very greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!!!

[DMarkM1]

You can file with the W2(s) you have.  First, OH and IN have a tax reciprocity agreement meaning only the resident state will tax income even if earned in the other state.  Having said that, if there were taxes withheld/paid (box 17) to IN then that has already occurred and changing a W2 does not change that.   

You will need to file a nonresident IN return to get those taxes paid, refunded. To generate the proper forms in TurboTax you will indicate in the "My Info" section that on Dec 31st you lived in OH and did not live in any other state; that is your full-year resident state.  Still in the "My Info" section scroll down to "Other State Income" and answer "Yes" you earned income in another state; select IN from the dropdown.  This will generate the IN non-resident return.  

Now you can work the federal "Wages & Income" section. 

You will enter the two W2s as one W2 with two state lines (OH and IN).  NOTE:  If you have entered two W2s previously delete one of them and edit (use) only one.  The federal boxes 1-14 amounts on both W2s should match since it was the same company.  Assuming that is true, enter the federal boxes 1- 14 from one of the W2s.  Your address should automatically populate based on your entries in the "My Info" section.  It does not matter what the address is on the actual form W2.  You will however need to enter the employer address from the form W2. 

If the employer did allocate part of your wages in box 1 to one state and part to the other then you will need to combine the amounts shown in federal boxes 1-14 from each W2 to make one form W2 entry.        

Enter the IN line (boxes 15-20) just as reported on the IN W2.  The IN line box 16 will only show the amount earned working in IN.  

The OH line box 16 (and 18 if local taxes were withheld) should match the total box 1 amount as that is your resident state and your resident state taxes income no matter where it is earned.  The OH line boxes 17, 19 and 20 should match the OH form W2 lines. 

After completing the federal entries work the IN state interview.  In the "Income" section you will be asked to allocate income to IN.  You will allocate zero (0) to IN so that all the taxes withheld will be refunded.