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I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and still works in PA.  She teleworks 4 days and commutes on the 5th.  Her company still hasn't processed her telework paperwork yet, so she is still being taxed for PA state taxes.  My plan is to file married/jointly for federal, however, I'm not sure how to handle the state returns.  I believe WV and PA are reciprocal tax states, but I'm worried they may never change her state of tax in the payroll system and keep it with just PA taxes being taken out.  How should I handle the state tax returns?

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I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

Your wife should complete and give to her employer a PA Rev 419 to stop all PA withholding ASAP..

http://www.revenue.pa.gov/FormsandPublications/FormsforBusinesses/Documents/Employer%20Withholding/r...

It's unclear if you were married in 2016 (that would be the return that is past due now) or if your talking about 2017.  I'm assuming you are asking about 2016.

I would advise for each of you to file married filing separate for 2016 for both PA and WV.

For you, report all income on your WV resident return.


For your wife, she will need to file two part year returns (married filing separate).

All income earned by your wife while a PA resident is reported on her MFS part-year PA return.  Include all PA withholding for 2016.  If they withheld PA taxes the entire year, she should be getting a nice refund depending on her other income.

All income earned by your wife while a WV resident is reported on her MFS  part-year WV return.  If there was no WV withholding, she likely will owe taxes and possibly a penalty.

For 2017, if PA income taxes have been withheld, you would be eligible for a full refund of those taxes as PA does not tax the wages of a reciprocal state resident.  File WV MFJ.

If you were married in 2017, then file the REV419 ASAP and file the separate returns for 2017.  You may wish to file WV estimated taxes for 2017 but definitely will need to file WV estimates for 2018 to avoid penalties.

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9 Replies

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

The general answer for a non-reciprocal state would be that you file joint federal and separately state.  You would file a WV only return, and your wife would file a part-year resident WV and a part-year resident PA return.  (Not non-resident returns, in her case).  This would require 3 separate turbotax files so you will want to use turbotax installed on your own computer since online returns would have 3 separate fees.  You would need a joint federal return with no state, a separate federal return for you with WV (print and mail WV and discard the federal return); and a separate federal return with PA for your spouse (print and mail PA and discard the federal).

Normally, if your wife was switched to WV withholding, you would only need to file a WV return due to reciprocity -- except that in this case, she would still have a half year PA withholding and the only way to get that back is to file a PA return.

I think, that at this point your wife should leave her taxation at PA and have it switched on January 1, since if she only has PA withholding, then she only needs to file a PA return and not a WV return when married filing separately.

Under reciprocity you could file jointly in WV only, and you can do that next year for sure, but that doesn't account for her PA withholding this year.

Maybe someone else will have an idea.  @Critter#2 ??

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

Have you received a determination by your employer if she is subject to PA tax?   PA is one of the states that considers telecommuting for the convenience of the employee to be income sourced to PA.  Only if the work is required to be performed in WV would PA consider it not PA sourced income.

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

@re2boys She was definitely subject up until July, but now she lives permanently in WV though has kept her same job that is based brick and mortar in PA.  Her work HR is essentially saying they don't have anyone else living in WV, so they'd rather not deal with swapping the state taxes.  To my understanding, that could cause WV to hit us with a penalty if she doesn't pay until the end of the tax year, right?

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

@Opus 17 Thanks. If we file the state separately and have her file only a PA state return this year, wouldn't we technically be in a gray area since she lives in WV now, or is that one of those things that they will overlook?

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

@Dragonwulf     :  Who are you and why are you answering for the OP???  Are you here to cause trouble?
@mike.mcintyre :  Someone else impersonating you??

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

@re2boys Sorry, I have Mint account and an old turbotax account.  I thought I submitted the question and answered you guys with the same account.  We were married in July of 2017, so I'm just trying to figure out what we will need at the end of the year.  This started with me trying to figure out how many allowances to take on my w4, and then I realized we were going to have issues since her work won't change the state of witholding.  I printed out PA Rev 419 to give her to take in and assert that they need to make the change whether it is in an inconvenience or not.  Thanks for the guidance and sorry for the response confusion.

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

@re2boys Thanks again.  I have the account issue fixed

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

The Rev419 should stop the PA withholding but it is completely up to the business if they wish to withhold WV taxes or not.  It appears they don't wish to bother for one employee.  So you should look into filing estimated WV taxes for the remainder of 2017.
Form:  <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TaxForms/it140es.pdf">http://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TaxForms/it140es.pdf</...>
Instructions:  <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TaxForms/it140esi.pdf">http://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TaxForms/it140esi.pdf...>

I live and work in WV, and was married in July. My wife lived/worked in PA, but now lives in WV and works in PA. If we file jointly, which state returns should we file?

Your wife should complete and give to her employer a PA Rev 419 to stop all PA withholding ASAP..

http://www.revenue.pa.gov/FormsandPublications/FormsforBusinesses/Documents/Employer%20Withholding/r...

It's unclear if you were married in 2016 (that would be the return that is past due now) or if your talking about 2017.  I'm assuming you are asking about 2016.

I would advise for each of you to file married filing separate for 2016 for both PA and WV.

For you, report all income on your WV resident return.


For your wife, she will need to file two part year returns (married filing separate).

All income earned by your wife while a PA resident is reported on her MFS part-year PA return.  Include all PA withholding for 2016.  If they withheld PA taxes the entire year, she should be getting a nice refund depending on her other income.

All income earned by your wife while a WV resident is reported on her MFS  part-year WV return.  If there was no WV withholding, she likely will owe taxes and possibly a penalty.

For 2017, if PA income taxes have been withheld, you would be eligible for a full refund of those taxes as PA does not tax the wages of a reciprocal state resident.  File WV MFJ.

If you were married in 2017, then file the REV419 ASAP and file the separate returns for 2017.  You may wish to file WV estimated taxes for 2017 but definitely will need to file WV estimates for 2018 to avoid penalties.

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