1099 Contractor in Texas with a Tennessee Client: Where Do You File?
Answer
A clean pair for a contractor. With no personal income tax in Texas or Tennessee, the state layer disappears: no estimated payments, no nonresident return, and no question about whether the client's location creates a filing obligation.
Last verified
Contractors carry their own tax administration, which usually means quarterly estimated payments to a home state. This pairing removes that layer entirely — neither Texas nor Tennessee taxes personal income.
What you file
There is nothing to file in either Texas or Tennessee on these wages. Your federal return is unaffected — the federal government taxes the income whatever the states do.
The two states, side by side
| Texas | Tennessee | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | No |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | No income tax |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts | Tennessee Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Tennessee and working in Texas gives:No state income tax either side.
Same two states, different situation
The withholding answer turns on how you are paid and where the work happens, not only on which two states are involved.
- W-2 commuter: Texas → TennesseeNo state income tax either side
- Remote worker: Texas → TennesseeNo state income tax either side
- Moved mid-year: Texas → TennesseeNo state return either side
Other Texas pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Texas and my client is in Tennessee. Do I have to file a Tennessee tax return?
A clean pair for a contractor. With no personal income tax in Texas or Tennessee, the state layer disappears: no estimated payments, no nonresident return, and no question about whether the client's location creates a filing obligation.
Do reciprocity agreements help a 1099 contractor?
No. Every state reciprocity agreement in the country is an arrangement about wage withholding between two revenue departments, and a 1099 has no withholding to switch off. Whether Texas and Tennessee hold an agreement makes no difference to a self-employed filer — sourcing rules decide the answer instead.
How current is this?
The Texas and Tennessee rules on this page were last checked against Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and Tennessee Department of Revenue on 2026-08-07. We re-check the full grid every December after state legislative sessions close, and re-check the convenience-of-the-employer states quarterly because that is where the rules move fastest.
Sources
Every fact above comes from the revenue department that publishes the rule. We do not cite secondary summaries, and we do not restate a figure we could not find at source.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Tennessee Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07