Live in Louisiana, Work Remotely for a Rhode Island Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
One state, one return: Louisiana. Rhode Island has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your Louisiana resident return reports the Rhode Island income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Rhode Island charged you nothing.
Last verified
The instinct that working in a no-tax state means paying no tax is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Rhode Island takes nothing, but Louisiana still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Louisiana return.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Louisiana
File a Louisiana resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Louisiana | Rhode Island | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form IT-540B | Form RI-1040NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule G (Form IT-540) | Form RI-1040NR Schedule II |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Louisiana Department of Revenue | Rhode Island Division of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Rhode Island and working in Louisiana 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: Louisiana → Rhode IslandBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Louisiana → Rhode IslandHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Louisiana → Rhode IslandTwo part-year returns
Other Louisiana pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Louisiana and work remotely for a Rhode Island employer. Which state do I pay?
One state, one return: Louisiana. Rhode Island has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your Louisiana resident return reports the Rhode Island income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Rhode Island charged you nothing.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Louisiana. Your employer should withhold Louisiana tax rather than Rhode Island tax on these wages. If a Rhode Island line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Rhode Island employer's location alone create a Rhode Island tax obligation?
No. Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island are a different matter — those are Rhode Island-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Louisiana and Rhode Island rules on this page were last checked against Louisiana Department of Revenue and Rhode Island 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.
- Louisiana Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Rhode Island Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07