Moved from Massachusetts to Delaware Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from Massachusetts to Delaware splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a Massachusetts part-year return covers everything before it, a Delaware part-year return everything after. Income is assigned by when it was received.
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 · 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.
- 2Part-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.
The two states, side by side
| Massachusetts | Delaware | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | Yes — general rule |
| Nonresident return | Form 1-NR/PY | Form PIT-NON |
| Part-year return | Form 1-NR/PY | Form PIT-NON (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OJC | Schedule I (Form PIT-RES) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Massachusetts Department of Revenue | Delaware Division of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Delaware and working in Massachusetts 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: Massachusetts → DelawareBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Massachusetts → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- 1099 contractor: Massachusetts → DelawareHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Massachusetts pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Massachusetts to Delaware mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from Massachusetts to Delaware splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a Massachusetts part-year return covers everything before it, a Delaware part-year return everything after. Income is assigned by when it was received.
How do I split my income between Massachusetts and Delaware?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Massachusetts resident belongs on the Massachusetts return and income received afterwards on the Delaware 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 Massachusetts and Delaware rules on this page were last checked against Massachusetts Department of Revenue and Delaware Division 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.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Delaware Division of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07