1099 Contractors with Out-of-State Clients: Where Your Self-Employment Income Is Taxed
Nobody withholds anything from a 1099. You owe estimated tax where you perform the work — a client's mailing address does not create a filing obligation on its own.
Which state taxes your paycheck?
Pick where you live, where the work is, and how you are paid. You get the withholding answer, the exemption form if one exists, and the returns to file — with the revenue-department source.
Your answer appears here. There are five possible outcomes:
- Home state only
- Reciprocity — file the form
- Work state only
- Both states, with a credit
- Convenience-rule trap
The rule that decides this
Nothing is withheld from a 1099. That single fact changes the shape of the question: there is no withholding to argue about, no exemption certificate to file, and no reciprocity agreement that applies — every agreement in the country is an arrangement about wage withholding between two revenue departments, and wages are exactly what a contractor does not have.
What remains is sourcing. Income from personal services is sourced to the place where the services are performed, so if you work from your home office, the income is home-state income no matter where the client sits. A client's mailing address does not create a filing obligation in the client's state. Days you physically spend working in that state do.
The practical consequences are a quarterly estimated-payment schedule to your home state, and a day count for any state you travel to for work. A handful of states publish a genuine de minimis before that day count matters; most do not.
All 51 jurisdictions
Every state, with how its 50 outbound pairs break down in this situation. A high alert count means most people leaving that state for work in another one land in a complicated position.
| Live in | Simple | Two returns | Exposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Alaska | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| Arizona | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Arkansas | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| California | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Colorado | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Connecticut | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Delaware | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| District of Columbia | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Florida | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| Georgia | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Hawaii | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Idaho | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Illinois | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Indiana | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Iowa | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Kansas | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Kentucky | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Louisiana | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Maine | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Maryland | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Massachusetts | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Michigan | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Mississippi | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Missouri | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Montana | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Nebraska | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Nevada | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| New Hampshire | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| New Jersey | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| New Mexico | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| New York | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| North Carolina | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| North Dakota | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Ohio | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Oklahoma | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Oregon | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Rhode Island | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| South Carolina | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| South Dakota | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| Texas | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| Utah | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Vermont | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Virginia | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Washington | 8 | 42 | 0 |
| West Virginia | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 9 | 41 | 0 |
| Wyoming | 8 | 42 | 0 |
Pairs where the answer surprises people
- Alaska → AlabamaClient state only, if you work there
- Alaska → ArizonaClient state only, if you work there
- Florida → AlabamaClient state only, if you work there
- Florida → ArizonaClient state only, if you work there
- Alaska → ArkansasClient state only, if you work there
- Florida → ArkansasClient state only, if you work there
The other three situations
- W-2 commuterI live in one state and work in another — which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
- Remote workerI work remotely from home for an out-of-state employer — do I owe tax in the employer's state?
- Moved mid-yearI moved from one state to another mid-year — do I file in both states?
Questions people actually ask
I'm a 1099 contractor with a client in another state — do I have to file there?
Nobody withholds anything from a 1099. You owe estimated tax where you perform the work — a client's mailing address does not create a filing obligation on its own. There are 51 jurisdictions and 2550 ordered state pairs, and this site publishes the answer for every one of them. Pick your two states above, or use the routing table below.
Which states have income tax reciprocity agreements?
16 jurisdictions hold at least one agreement, covering 30 agreements in total: District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Each agreement lets a resident of one state work in the other without the work state withholding, provided the employee files that work state's exemption certificate with their employer. The certificate is never automatic and it is never retroactive.
Which states have no income tax on wages?
Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Two of those need a footnote — Washington levies an excise tax on long-term capital gains, and New Hampshire taxed interest and dividends until that levy was repealed. Neither ever reached a paycheck, which is why they belong on this list.
Which states use the convenience-of-the-employer rule?
Six, and they split into two kinds. Delaware, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania apply a general rule to any nonresident employee of an in-state employer. Connecticut and New Jersey apply a mirror version that reaches only residents of states that impose a similar test. This is the single most consequential fact for remote workers, and it is the reason the remote answer often differs from the commuting answer for the same two states.
How often is this checked?
The full 51-jurisdiction grid is re-verified every December, after state legislative sessions close and the following year's forms are published. The convenience-of-the-employer states are re-checked quarterly because that is where the rules move fastest. Every page carries the date its own two states were last checked; the newest across the grid is 2026-08-07.
How this was built
Every answer on this hub comes from one 51-row dataset, each row checked against the state's own revenue department and dated. The same dataset drives the checker at the top of this page and all 2550 pair pages beneath it, which is why the tool and the pages can never disagree. Read themethodologyor the full source list.