Moved from Kentucky to Hawaii Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
You file two part-year returns. Kentucky taxes the income you received while you lived there, Hawaii 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
Part-year returns are designed so that neither state taxes the whole year. The risk is not double taxation by default; it is misassigning income received near the move date, and losing the proration on deductions and credits.
What you file
- 1Part-year return · KentuckyForm 740-NP
File a Kentucky part-year return covering the months you lived in Kentucky. A part-year resident of Kentucky reports the income received while a Kentucky resident, plus any Kentucky-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
- 2Part-year return · HawaiiForm N-15 (part-year resident)
File a Hawaii part-year return covering the months you lived in Hawaii. A part-year resident of Hawaii reports the income received while a Hawaii resident, plus any Hawaii-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
| Kentucky | Hawaii | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 7 (Form 42A809) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 740-NP | Form N-15 |
| Part-year return | Form 740-NP | Form N-15 (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule ITC | Schedule CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | No |
| Revenue department | Kentucky Department of Revenue | Hawaii Department of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Hawaii and working in Kentucky 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: Kentucky → HawaiiBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Kentucky → HawaiiHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Kentucky → HawaiiHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Kentucky pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Kentucky to Hawaii mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
You file two part-year returns. Kentucky taxes the income you received while you lived there, Hawaii 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 Kentucky and Hawaii?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Kentucky resident belongs on the Kentucky return and income received afterwards on the Hawaii 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 Kentucky and Hawaii rules on this page were last checked against Kentucky Department of Revenue and Hawaii Department 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.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Hawaii Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07