Moved from Tennessee to District of Columbia Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
District of Columbia taxes the second half of the year. Tennessee has no personal income tax, so the pre-move income is untouched at state level; the District of Columbia part-year return picks up from the date you became a District of Columbia resident and prorates your deductions to that stretch.
Last verified
Coming from a state with no income tax means arriving with no District of Columbia withholding history and no prior-year liability to base estimates on. The first District of Columbia return is where that catches up, so the withholding start date matters.
What you file
- 1Part-year return · District of ColumbiaForm D-40 (part-year resident)
File a District of Columbia part-year return covering the months you lived in District of Columbia. Tennessee has no wage income tax, so there is nothing to file for the earlier part of the year.
The two states, side by side
| Tennessee | District of Columbia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 2 (Form D-4A) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | None — nonresidents exempt |
| Part-year return | Not applicable | Form D-40 (part-year resident) |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | Schedule U (Form D-40) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Tennessee Department of Revenue | District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in District of Columbia and working in Tennessee gives:One part-year return — the state you left.
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: Tennessee → District of ColumbiaNo state income tax either side
- Remote worker: Tennessee → District of ColumbiaNo state income tax on your wages
- 1099 contractor: Tennessee → District of ColumbiaClient state only, if you work there
Other Tennessee pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Tennessee to District of Columbia mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
District of Columbia taxes the second half of the year. Tennessee has no personal income tax, so the pre-move income is untouched at state level; the District of Columbia part-year return picks up from the date you became a District of Columbia resident and prorates your deductions to that stretch.
How do I split my income between Tennessee and District of Columbia?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Tennessee resident belongs on the Tennessee return and income received afterwards on the District of Columbia return. Keep evidence of the move date — a lease, a closing statement, a licence issue date.
How current is this?
The Tennessee and District of Columbia rules on this page were last checked against Tennessee Department of Revenue and District of Columbia Office of Tax and 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.
- Tennessee Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07