Work Study Income From a Different State

[oatmeal]

Full time student attends College in NY. Student's state of residence is MA, and will be filing Federal and MA tax returns. Student is claimed as a Dependent. Work Study earnings from NY was only $227. No Federal or State income taxes withheld on this NY W-2. Does Student need to complete a NY State tax return?

[ErnieS0]

It depends on whether your full-time student has other income.

Work study earnings from New York are taxable to New York. However, if $227 is your dependent’s total income, the amount is too small to file for New York.

However, New York includes total income earned everywhere when setting the base tax rate for a nonresident. If your dependent had other income, then they may have to file. They would be taxed on the NY percentage of a total tax based on all their income. For example, if the NY tax on total income was $500 and work study was 10% of that, the NY tax would be $50.

If you are using TurboTax online, the easy way to check is to create a NY nonresident return. If TurboTax says you owe, file the return. If the refund box is $0, delete the return. You will not be charged if you delete before you pay and file.

Learn more at Filing information for New York State nonresidents

[oatmeal]

Thank you. To answer your question, Student also has total wages of $7150 in W-2 from RI. The RI W-2 has Federal and State withholding. So total 2022 earnings of $7377.

[ErnieS0]

According to my estimate, your student would not have to file a nonresident New York tax return. There is no state balance due on $227 NY income and $7377 total income.