Moved from Virginia to Massachusetts Mid-Year: Which State Tax Returns Do You File?
Answer
You file two part-year returns. Virginia taxes the income you received while you lived there, Massachusetts 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 · 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.
- 2Part-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.
The two states, side by side
| Virginia | Massachusetts | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — flat |
| Reciprocity partners | 5 (Form VA-4) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 763 | Form 1-NR/PY |
| Part-year return | Form 760PY | Form 1-NR/PY |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OSC | Schedule OJC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Virginia Department of Taxation | Massachusetts Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Massachusetts and working in Virginia 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: Virginia → MassachusettsBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- Remote worker: Virginia → MassachusettsHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Virginia → MassachusettsHome state, plus the client state if you work there
Other Virginia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I moved from Virginia to Massachusetts mid-year. Do I have to file in both states?
You file two part-year returns. Virginia taxes the income you received while you lived there, Massachusetts 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 Virginia and Massachusetts?
By when you received it, measured against the date your domicile actually changed. Income received while you were a Virginia resident belongs on the Virginia return and income received afterwards on the Massachusetts 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 Virginia and Massachusetts rules on this page were last checked against Virginia Department of Taxation and Massachusetts 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.
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07