Live in Massachusetts, Work Remotely for a Kansas Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only Massachusetts taxes you. Kansas levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Kansas return. Massachusetts taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Kansas earnings go on a Massachusetts resident return in full.
Last verified
The instinct that working in a no-tax state means paying no tax is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Kansas takes nothing, but Massachusetts still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Massachusetts return.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Massachusetts
File a Massachusetts resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Massachusetts | Kansas | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 1-NR/PY | Form K-40 with Schedule S Part B |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OJC | Form K-40 (credit for taxes paid to other states) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Massachusetts Department of Revenue | Kansas Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Kansas and working in Massachusetts 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: Massachusetts → KansasBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Massachusetts → KansasHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Massachusetts → KansasTwo part-year returns
Other Massachusetts pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Massachusetts and work remotely for a Kansas employer. Which state do I pay?
Only Massachusetts taxes you. Kansas levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Kansas return. Massachusetts taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Kansas earnings go on a Massachusetts resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Massachusetts. Your employer should withhold Massachusetts tax rather than Kansas tax on these wages. If a Kansas line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Kansas employer's location alone create a Kansas tax obligation?
No. Kansas 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 Kansas are a different matter — those are Kansas-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Massachusetts and Kansas rules on this page were last checked against Massachusetts Department of Revenue and Kansas 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.
- Massachusetts Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Kansas Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07