Moved from Louisiana to Massachusetts Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
You file two part-year returns. Louisiana taxes the income you received while you lived there, Massachusetts 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 · LouisianaForm IT-540B
File a Louisiana part-year return covering the months you lived in Louisiana. A part-year resident of Louisiana reports the income received while a Louisiana resident, plus any Louisiana-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
- 2Part-year return · MassachusettsForm 1-NR/PY
File a Massachusetts part-year return covering the months you lived in Massachusetts. A part-year resident of Massachusetts reports the income received while a Massachusetts resident, plus any Massachusetts-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
| Louisiana | Massachusetts | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — flat |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form IT-540B | Form 1-NR/PY |
| Part-year return | Form IT-540B | Form 1-NR/PY |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule G (Form IT-540) | Schedule OJC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Louisiana Department of Revenue | Massachusetts Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Massachusetts and working in Louisiana 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: Louisiana → MassachusettsBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Louisiana → MassachusettsHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Louisiana → MassachusettsHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Louisiana pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Louisiana to Massachusetts mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
You file two part-year returns. Louisiana taxes the income you received while you lived there, Massachusetts 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 Louisiana and Massachusetts?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Louisiana resident belongs on the Louisiana return and income received afterwards on the Massachusetts 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 Louisiana and Massachusetts rules on this page were last checked against Louisiana Department of Revenue and Massachusetts 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.
- Louisiana Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07