Live in Alabama, Work Remotely for a South Carolina Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only Alabama taxes you. South Carolina levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no South Carolina return. Alabama taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your South Carolina earnings go on a Alabama resident return in full.
Last verified
Crossing into a state with no income tax does not lower your tax bill, because your home state is not taxing you on where you work — it is taxing you on where you live. Alabama reaches all of a resident's income, and South Carolina adds nothing on top.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Alabama
File a Alabama resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Alabama | South Carolina | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 40NR | Form SC1040 with Schedule NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule CR | Form SC1040TC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | No |
| Revenue department | Alabama Department of Revenue | South Carolina Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in South Carolina and working in Alabama gives:Home state only.
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: Alabama → South CarolinaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Alabama → South CarolinaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Alabama → South CarolinaTwo part-year returns
Other Alabama pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Alabama and work remotely for a South Carolina employer. Which state do I pay?
Only Alabama taxes you. South Carolina levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no South Carolina return. Alabama taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your South Carolina earnings go on a Alabama resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Alabama. Your employer should withhold Alabama tax rather than South Carolina tax on these wages. If a South Carolina line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my South Carolina employer's location alone create a South Carolina tax obligation?
No. South Carolina sources wages to the place where the work is physically performed, and it does not apply a convenience-of-the-employer rule that would override that. Days you actually spend working inside South Carolina are a different matter — those are South Carolina-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Alabama and South Carolina rules on this page were last checked against Alabama Department of Revenue and South Carolina 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.
- Alabama Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- South Carolina Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07