Live in Illinois, Work Remotely for a Georgia Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Illinois taxes the income and Georgia cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Illinois reaches all of a resident's income, and Georgia 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. Georgia takes nothing, but Illinois still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Illinois return.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Illinois
File a Illinois resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Illinois | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — flat |
| Reciprocity partners | 4 (Form IL-W-5-NR) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form IL-1040 with Schedule NR | Form 500 with Schedule 3 |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule CR | Form 500 Schedule 2 |
| Nonresident safe harbour | 30 days | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Illinois Department of Revenue | Georgia Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Georgia and working in Illinois 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: Illinois → GeorgiaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Illinois → GeorgiaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Illinois → GeorgiaTwo part-year returns
Other Illinois pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Illinois and work remotely for a Georgia employer. Which state do I pay?
Illinois taxes the income and Georgia cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Illinois reaches all of a resident's income, and Georgia has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Illinois. Your employer should withhold Illinois tax rather than Georgia tax on these wages. If a Georgia line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Georgia employer's location alone create a Georgia tax obligation?
No. Georgia 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 Georgia are a different matter — those are Georgia-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Illinois and Georgia rules on this page were last checked against Illinois Department of Revenue and Georgia 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.
- Illinois Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Georgia Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07