I am a resident of OH, an employee of a company in NJ, and I travel to PA, NJ, NY, MS, but have one w-2 showing only OH. What states should I file taxes?

[sharpsight42]

I also work remotely, so in the case of one client, I had some weeks like this: I worked 3 days onsite for the client in NY, then 1 day out of my company office in NJ, then the last day from my home in OH (remotely). My hours were not tracked by location, just by client, so my W-2 shows only taxes withheld for OH.

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

This is complicated, but here is the general rule:  You will file a resident return for Ohio, with nonresident returns for NJ, NY and MS.  You will not need to file PA because OH and PA are reciprocal states, so they agree that you only pay tax on income earned in PA to Ohio, your resident state.  All of your income is taxed in Ohio, but Ohio will issue you a credit for the tax you pay to any other state for income you earned in that state in particular.  The Ohio return is the easiest (since they tax all of your income), but you will prepare it last because you need the other states' tax information to transfer over and determine the credit on your Ohio return.  What order to start?

• Mississippi.  You determine how much income you earned physically working in Mississippi.  What you earned there is the amount you will report to them.  That much is pretty straightforward.
• New Jersey.  You will definitely report to New Jersey the amount of income you earned physically working in New Jersey.  This includes the income you earned on behalf of the NY client while working in the NJ office.  You will also need to report to New Jersey any telecommuting (remote) work that you did for a NJ client, or directly for the NJ office.  
  
• New York.  You will definitely report the income you earned while physically working in NY.  However, you will also include as New York income any telecommuting (remote) work you performed from your home in Ohio on behalf of the New York client.  You do not, however, include the income you earned working on behalf of the New York client performed from your NJ office.
  

Both NY and NJ treat a telecommuter working from home for an employer in their state as if they are working inside of their state as well.  This can take a bit of math if it has not been spelled out for you on your W-2. which sounds like it's the case here.  (Preparing these returns yourself is possible to do, but I also wouldn't blame you if you looked for a professional to get these correctly reported.)

Feel free to comment if you have any questions.  

[sharpsight42]

Then the challenge is that I have no idea how much I earned in each state. Since hours are tracked by client for my company, not by state, no one knows exactly how many days were spent onsite within the state, how many at my company HQ, and how many I worked from home in OH. The W-2 shows only earnings in OH. What can be done in that case?

[Hal_Al]

You make you best estimate based on your own records/memory. "no one knows exactly how many days were spent onsite within the state". Federal and state tax agencies expect  the taxpayer to keep records.  One possibility is expense reimbursement records

[Hal_Al]

Yes, you are ''suppose to'' file returns for those states, but "nobody" does. See http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/28/pf/taxes/business-traveler-tax-threat/