Moved from Delaware to New Jersey Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
You file two part-year returns. Delaware taxes the income you received while you lived there, New Jersey taxes the income you received after the move, and each state prorates your deductions and credits to its own slice of the year. The date you changed domicile is the dividing line.
Last verified
A mid-year move splits the tax year in two, and each state taxes its own half. That is a residency question, so the machinery that governs commuters — reciprocity agreements, convenience rules, nonresident withholding — is beside the point here.
What you file
- 1Part-year return · DelawareForm PIT-NON (part-year resident)
File a Delaware part-year return covering the months you lived in Delaware. A part-year resident of Delaware reports the income received while a Delaware resident, plus any Delaware-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
- 2Part-year return · New JerseyForm NJ-1040 (part-year resident)
File a New Jersey part-year return covering the months you lived in New Jersey. A part-year resident of New Jersey reports the income received while a New Jersey resident, plus any New Jersey-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
The two states, side by side
| Delaware | New Jersey | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 1 (Form NJ-165) |
| Convenience rule | Yes — general rule | Only against convenience-rule states |
| Nonresident return | Form PIT-NON | Form NJ-1040NR |
| Part-year return | Form PIT-NON (part-year resident) | Form NJ-1040 (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule I (Form PIT-RES) | Schedule NJ-COJ |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | No |
| Revenue department | Delaware Division of Revenue | New Jersey Division of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in New Jersey and working in Delaware gives:Two part-year returns.
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: Delaware → New JerseyBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Delaware → New JerseyConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- 1099 contractor: Delaware → New JerseyHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Delaware pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Delaware to New Jersey mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
You file two part-year returns. Delaware taxes the income you received while you lived there, New Jersey taxes the income you received after the move, and each state prorates your deductions and credits to its own slice of the year. The date you changed domicile is the dividing line.
How do I split my income between Delaware and New Jersey?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Delaware resident belongs on the Delaware return and income received afterwards on the New Jersey return, with each state prorating your deductions, exemptions and credits to its own part of the year. Keep evidence of the move date — a lease, a closing statement, a licence issue date.
How current is this?
The Delaware and New Jersey rules on this page were last checked against Delaware Division of Revenue and New Jersey Division of Taxation 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.
- Delaware Division of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07