Working Remotely for an Out-of-State Employer: Which State Taxes You
You work from home in one state for a company headquartered in another and never set foot in the employer's state. Usually only your home state can tax you — unless the employer's state runs a convenience-of-the-employer rule.
Which state taxes your paycheck?
Pick where you live, where the work is, and how you are paid. You get the withholding answer, the exemption form if one exists, and the returns to file — with the revenue-department source.
Your answer appears here. There are five possible outcomes:
- Home state only
- Reciprocity — file the form
- Work state only
- Both states, with a credit
- Convenience-rule trap
The rule that decides this
Wages are sourced to the place where the work is physically performed. Under that default, working from home for an out-of-state employer is straightforward: your home state taxes the income, the employer's state has no claim on it, and the company's address is irrelevant to your personal tax return.
Six jurisdictions disturb that default with a convenience-of-the-employer rule. They ask a question no other sourcing rule asks — not where you worked, but why you worked there. If you are at your kitchen table because you prefer it, they treat the day as a workday in the employer's state and tax it accordingly. If you are there because the employer genuinely requires it, they do not. The burden of showing necessity falls on you and your employer.
Delaware, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania apply the rule generally. Connecticut and New Jersey apply a mirror version that reaches only residents of states running a similar test — so for those two, the answer depends on where you live as much as on where the employer is.
The worst case is not the obvious one. If your home state taxes income, it credits back what the employer's state took. If your home state has no income tax, there is no resident return to claim that credit on, and the employer state's tax is simply final. Moving to a no-tax state while keeping a convenience-rule employer is the one relocation that makes the position worse rather than better.
All 51 jurisdictions
Every state, with how its 50 outbound pairs break down in this situation. A high alert count means most people leaving that state for work in another one land in a complicated position.
| Live in | Simple | Two returns | Exposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Alaska | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Arizona | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Arkansas | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| California | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Colorado | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Connecticut | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Delaware | 45 | 0 | 5 |
| District of Columbia | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Florida | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Georgia | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Hawaii | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Idaho | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Illinois | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Indiana | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| Iowa | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Kansas | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Kentucky | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Louisiana | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Maine | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Maryland | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| Massachusetts | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Michigan | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Minnesota | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Mississippi | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Missouri | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Montana | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Nebraska | 45 | 0 | 5 |
| Nevada | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| New Hampshire | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| New Jersey | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| New Mexico | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| New York | 45 | 0 | 5 |
| North Carolina | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| North Dakota | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Ohio | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| Oklahoma | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Oregon | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Pennsylvania | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Rhode Island | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| South Carolina | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| South Dakota | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Tennessee | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Texas | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Utah | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Vermont | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Virginia | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| Washington | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| West Virginia | 47 | 0 | 3 |
| Wisconsin | 46 | 0 | 4 |
| Wyoming | 46 | 0 | 4 |
The pairs that catch people out
- Alabama → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Delaware → ConnecticutConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Alabama → NebraskaConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Alaska → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- Alaska → NebraskaConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- Nebraska → ConnecticutConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Alabama → New YorkConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Alaska → New YorkConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- Arizona → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — both states tax you
- Alaska → PennsylvaniaConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- Florida → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- Florida → NebraskaConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
The other three situations
- W-2 commuterI live in one state and work in another — which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
- 1099 contractorI'm a 1099 contractor with a client in another state — do I have to file there?
- Moved mid-yearI moved from one state to another mid-year — do I file in both states?
Questions people actually ask
I work remotely from home for an out-of-state employer — do I owe tax in the employer's state?
You work from home in one state for a company headquartered in another and never set foot in the employer's state. Usually only your home state can tax you — unless the employer's state runs a convenience-of-the-employer rule. There are 51 jurisdictions and 2550 ordered state pairs, and this site publishes the answer for every one of them. Pick your two states above, or use the routing table below.
Which states have income tax reciprocity agreements?
16 jurisdictions hold at least one agreement, covering 30 agreements in total: District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Each agreement lets a resident of one state work in the other without the work state withholding, provided the employee files that work state's exemption certificate with their employer. The certificate is never automatic and it is never retroactive.
Which states have no income tax on wages?
Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Two of those need a footnote — Washington levies an excise tax on long-term capital gains, and New Hampshire taxed interest and dividends until that levy was repealed. Neither ever reached a paycheck, which is why they belong on this list.
Which states use the convenience-of-the-employer rule?
Six, and they split into two kinds. Delaware, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania apply a general rule to any nonresident employee of an in-state employer. Connecticut and New Jersey apply a mirror version that reaches only residents of states that impose a similar test. This is the single most consequential fact for remote workers, and it is the reason the remote answer often differs from the commuting answer for the same two states.
How often is this checked?
The full 51-jurisdiction grid is re-verified every December, after state legislative sessions close and the following year's forms are published. The convenience-of-the-employer states are re-checked quarterly because that is where the rules move fastest. Every page carries the date its own two states were last checked; the newest across the grid is 2026-08-07.
How this was built
Every answer on this hub comes from one 51-row dataset, each row checked against the state's own revenue department and dated. The same dataset drives the checker at the top of this page and all 2550 pair pages beneath it, which is why the tool and the pages can never disagree. Read themethodologyor the full source list.