Live in District of Columbia, Work Remotely for a Virginia Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
District of Columbia taxes the income and Virginia cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: District of Columbia reaches all of a resident's income, and Virginia has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
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. District of Columbia reaches all of a resident's income, and Virginia adds nothing on top.
What you file
- 1Resident return · District of Columbia
File a District of Columbia resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| District of Columbia | Virginia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 2 (Form D-4A) | 5 (Form VA-4) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | None — nonresidents exempt | Form 763 |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule U (Form D-40) | Schedule OSC |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue | Virginia Department of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Virginia and working in District of Columbia 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: District of Columbia → VirginiaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form
- 1099 contractor: District of Columbia → VirginiaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: District of Columbia → VirginiaTwo part-year returns
Other District of Columbia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in District of Columbia and work remotely for a Virginia employer. Which state do I pay?
District of Columbia taxes the income and Virginia cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: District of Columbia reaches all of a resident's income, and Virginia has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
District of Columbia. Your employer should withhold District of Columbia tax rather than Virginia tax on these wages. If a Virginia line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Virginia employer's location alone create a Virginia tax obligation?
No. Virginia 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 Virginia are a different matter — those are Virginia-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The District of Columbia and Virginia rules on this page were last checked against District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue and Virginia Department of Taxation 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.
- District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07