Moved from Massachusetts to Virginia Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
You file two part-year returns. Massachusetts taxes the income you received while you lived there, Virginia 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 · 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 · VirginiaForm 760PY
File a Virginia part-year return covering the months you lived in Virginia. A part-year resident of Virginia reports the income received while a Virginia resident, plus any Virginia-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 | Virginia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 5 (Form VA-4) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 1-NR/PY | Form 763 |
| Part-year return | Form 1-NR/PY | Form 760PY |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OJC | Schedule OSC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Massachusetts Department of Revenue | Virginia Department of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Virginia 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 → VirginiaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Massachusetts → VirginiaHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Massachusetts → VirginiaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Massachusetts pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Massachusetts to Virginia mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
You file two part-year returns. Massachusetts taxes the income you received while you lived there, Virginia 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 Massachusetts and Virginia?
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 Virginia 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 Virginia rules on this page were last checked against Massachusetts Department of Revenue and Virginia 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.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07