Live in Kentucky, Work Remotely for a Oregon Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Kentucky gets all of it. Because Oregon does not tax wage income, no Oregon withholding exists and no Oregon return is required — but Kentucky taxes residents on worldwide income, so every dollar earned in Oregon still belongs on your Kentucky resident return.
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. Kentucky reaches all of a resident's income, and Oregon adds nothing on top.
Oregon also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: The Portland area layers two local income taxes on top of the state tax — the Metro supportive housing tax and the Multnomah County preschool tax — and both reach nonresidents on income sourced to the district. They are administered by the City of Portland Revenue Division, not the Department of Revenue.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Kentucky
File a Kentucky resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Kentucky | Oregon | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 7 (Form 42A809) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 740-NP | Form OR-40-N |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule ITC | Schedule OR-ASC-NP |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | Yes | Yes |
| Revenue department | Kentucky Department of Revenue | Oregon Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Oregon and working in Kentucky 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: Kentucky → OregonBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Kentucky → OregonHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Kentucky → OregonTwo part-year returns
Other Kentucky pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Kentucky and work remotely for a Oregon employer. Which state do I pay?
Kentucky gets all of it. Because Oregon does not tax wage income, no Oregon withholding exists and no Oregon return is required — but Kentucky taxes residents on worldwide income, so every dollar earned in Oregon still belongs on your Kentucky resident return.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Kentucky. Your employer should withhold Kentucky tax rather than Oregon tax on these wages. If a Oregon line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Oregon employer's location alone create a Oregon tax obligation?
No. Oregon 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 Oregon are a different matter — those are Oregon-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Kentucky and Oregon rules on this page were last checked against Kentucky Department of Revenue and Oregon 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.
- Kentucky Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Oregon Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07