Moved from Michigan to Alabama Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from Michigan to Alabama splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a Michigan part-year return covers everything before it, a Alabama 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 · MichiganForm MI-1040 with Schedule NR
File a Michigan part-year return covering the months you lived in Michigan. A part-year resident of Michigan reports the income received while a Michigan resident, plus any Michigan-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
- 2Part-year return · AlabamaForm 40 (part-year resident)
File a Alabama part-year return covering the months you lived in Alabama. A part-year resident of Alabama reports the income received while a Alabama resident, plus any Alabama-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
| Michigan | Alabama | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 6 (Form MI-W4) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form MI-1040 with Schedule NR | Form 40NR |
| Part-year return | Form MI-1040 with Schedule NR | Form 40 (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form MI-1040 (credit for income tax imposed by another state) | Schedule CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | Yes |
| Revenue department | Michigan Department of Treasury | Alabama Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Alabama and working in Michigan 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: Michigan → AlabamaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Michigan → AlabamaHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Michigan → AlabamaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Michigan pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Michigan to Alabama mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from Michigan to Alabama splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a Michigan part-year return covers everything before it, a Alabama part-year return everything after. Income is assigned by when it was received.
How do I split my income between Michigan and Alabama?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Michigan resident belongs on the Michigan return and income received afterwards on the Alabama 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 Michigan and Alabama rules on this page were last checked against Michigan Department of Treasury and Alabama 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.
- Michigan Department of Treasury — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Alabama Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07