Live in Colorado, Work Remotely for a Maryland Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Colorado taxes the income and Maryland cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Colorado reaches all of a resident's income, and Maryland has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Last verified
The instinct that working in a no-tax state means paying no tax is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Maryland takes nothing, but Colorado still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Colorado return.
Maryland also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies its own income tax, collected on the state return. A reciprocity agreement exempts wages from the Maryland state tax only — it never reaches the county tax. Nonresidents who are not covered by an agreement pay a special nonresident rate in place of the county tax. Pennsylvania carries one further condition: a Pennsylvania resident exempt from the Maryland state tax remains liable for the Maryland local tax unless their own Pennsylvania jurisdiction imposes no earnings tax on Maryland residents.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Colorado
File a Colorado resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Colorado | Maryland | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 4 (Form MW507) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form DR 0104 with Schedule DR 0104PN | Form 505 with Form 505NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form DR 0104CR | Form 502CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | Yes |
| Revenue department | Colorado Department of Revenue — Taxation Division | Comptroller of Maryland |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Maryland and working in Colorado 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: Colorado → MarylandBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Colorado → MarylandHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Colorado → MarylandTwo part-year returns
Other Colorado pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Colorado and work remotely for a Maryland employer. Which state do I pay?
Colorado taxes the income and Maryland cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Colorado reaches all of a resident's income, and Maryland has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Colorado. Your employer should withhold Colorado tax rather than Maryland tax on these wages. If a Maryland line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Maryland employer's location alone create a Maryland tax obligation?
No. Maryland 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 Maryland are a different matter — those are Maryland-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Colorado and Maryland rules on this page were last checked against Colorado Department of Revenue — Taxation Division and Comptroller of Maryland 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.
- Colorado Department of Revenue — Taxation Division — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Comptroller of Maryland — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Maryland — Form MW507accessed 2026-08-07