Moved from New Jersey to Arkansas Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from New Jersey to Arkansas splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a New Jersey part-year return covers everything before it, a Arkansas 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 · New JerseyForm NJ-1040 (part-year resident)
File a New Jersey part-year return covering the months you lived in New Jersey. A part-year resident of New Jersey reports the income received while a New Jersey resident, plus any New Jersey-source income received during the rest of the year, and prorates the deductions and credits to the residency period.
- 2Part-year return · ArkansasForm AR1000NR (part-year resident)
File a Arkansas part-year return covering the months you lived in Arkansas. A part-year resident of Arkansas reports the income received while a Arkansas resident, plus any Arkansas-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
| New Jersey | Arkansas | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 1 (Form NJ-165) | None |
| Convenience rule | Only against convenience-rule states | No |
| Nonresident return | Form NJ-1040NR | Form AR1000NR |
| Part-year return | Form NJ-1040 (part-year resident) | Form AR1000NR (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule NJ-COJ | Form AR1000TC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | New Jersey Division of Taxation | Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Arkansas and working in New Jersey 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: New Jersey → ArkansasBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: New Jersey → ArkansasHome state only
- 1099 contractor: New Jersey → ArkansasHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other New Jersey pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from New Jersey to Arkansas mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
Both states want a return, but neither taxes the whole year. Moving from New Jersey to Arkansas splits the tax year at the date your residency changed: a New Jersey part-year return covers everything before it, a Arkansas part-year return everything after. Income is assigned by when it was received.
How do I split my income between New Jersey and Arkansas?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a New Jersey resident belongs on the New Jersey return and income received afterwards on the Arkansas 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 New Jersey and Arkansas rules on this page were last checked against New Jersey Division of Taxation and Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration 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.
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07
- Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07