Live in Illinois, Work Remotely for a New Jersey Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
One state, one return: Illinois. New Jersey has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your Illinois resident return reports the New Jersey income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because New Jersey charged you nothing.
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. Illinois reaches all of a resident's income, and New Jersey adds nothing on top.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Illinois
File a Illinois resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Illinois | New Jersey | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 4 (Form IL-W-5-NR) | 1 (Form NJ-165) |
| Convenience rule | No | Only against convenience-rule states |
| Nonresident return | Form IL-1040 with Schedule NR | Form NJ-1040NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule CR | Schedule NJ-COJ |
| Nonresident safe harbour | 30 days | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Illinois Department of Revenue | New Jersey Division of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in New Jersey 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 → New JerseyBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Illinois → New JerseyHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Illinois → New JerseyTwo part-year returns
Other Illinois pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Illinois and work remotely for a New Jersey employer. Which state do I pay?
One state, one return: Illinois. New Jersey has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your Illinois resident return reports the New Jersey income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because New Jersey charged you nothing.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Illinois. Your employer should withhold Illinois tax rather than New Jersey tax on these wages. If a New Jersey line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my New Jersey employer's location alone create a New Jersey tax obligation?
No. New Jersey 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 New Jersey are a different matter — those are New Jersey-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Illinois and New Jersey rules on this page were last checked against Illinois Department of Revenue and New Jersey Division 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.
- Illinois Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07