I work remotely at home. Do I still have to pay the tax in the city where my employer is if I work from home where only school district tax is required?

[karebear7910]

I live in a rural area so no municipal taxes are collected where I live

[MinhT · Accepted solution]

If you work from home, your tax home is at your address. You do not have to pay tax in the city where your employer is located.

[Hal_Al]

I assume you live and work in Ohio. Why do you ask? Is your employer withholding for his location city? TurboTaxMinhT is correct, you are not subject to that city's income tax. You should ask your employer to stop withholding. You can claim a refund for the tax already withheld. You should contact that city for forms. Most have a special form for that kind of refund.

If you are asking if you need to file a city tax return, for that city, the answer is no. You normally only have to file a return in the city you live in. It is not necessary to file one in the city you work in, if different. You would only file to get a refund of improper withholding

[lcochran002]

I am in almost this exact scenario currently-   I 100% work from home and was hired to do so- I'm NOT home related to COVID.  Can anyone cite ORC or similar to back this up, as the company accountant disagrees with me, and I have taxes being taken out for the city the company is based in.  (I am also remote,  and no local city tax to pay)

[Hal_Al]

718.01 (B) (2)

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/718

It's not unusual for employers to take the easy way out and  just withhold for all employees.

You'll need to file a non-resident city return to get a refund. It's a good idea to contact the city first, because they may require a special form for this situation, that is not in TT. My city calls it the itinerant employee refund form.

[lcochran002]

Thank you!

[RDrsek]

Just so others know, at least for the state of Ohio, they passed HB 197 which basically says working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic shall be deemed to be a day performing personal services at the employee’s principal place of work. So you still need to pay the local taxes.

Dont agree with it, but thats the law. Nothing like giving cities your money even though you use none of their infrastructure or services for almost the entire  year. Yay government!

[scomf]

So I have this same issue but in PA. I work in the city (Philly) but live out of the city and pay city wage tax. Do you know if they passed the same law/rule for PA? Also the city claims I need to fill out a PA-40. Can anyone comment on the difficultly of completing this form? Thanks

[Hal_Al]

@scomf  you need to ask a new question, rather than tagging on here, to increase the chances of somebody familiar with PA seeing the question.

[LenaH]

Yes. Per the City of Philadelphia Department of Revenue, the wages of the non‐resident city employees who are required to and do work at home are not subject to Wage Tax , except on the days they report to the Philadelphia work location.

For more information, please see Philadelphia Wage Tax Q&A applicable to COVID‐19 policies

PA-40 is the Pennsylvania Income Tax return form. Once you add the state on your return in TurboTax, most of your information will flow from your federal input.

From your question, it seems as you are a Pennsylvania resident. If you have filed a tax return as a PA resident in previous years, this is the form you would have filed. 

@scomf