Live in New Jersey, Work Remotely for a Connecticut Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
New Jersey taxes the income and Connecticut cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: New Jersey reaches all of a resident's income, and Connecticut has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
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. New Jersey reaches all of a resident's income, and Connecticut adds nothing on top.
One caution specific to this pair: New Jersey and Connecticut both run convenience rules that apply only to residents of states with a similar test, and neither statute says what happens when the other side's rule is itself conditional. We treat the rule as not firing, which is the reading the published guidance supports — but this is genuinely unsettled, and it is worth raising with a tax professional before you rely on it.
What you file
- 1Resident return · New Jersey
File a New Jersey resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| New Jersey | Connecticut | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 1 (Form NJ-165) | None |
| Convenience rule | Only against convenience-rule states | Only against convenience-rule states |
| Nonresident return | Form NJ-1040NR | Form CT-1040NR/PY |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule NJ-COJ | Schedule 2 (Form CT-1040) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | New Jersey Division of Taxation | Connecticut Department of Revenue Services |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Connecticut and working in New Jersey 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: New Jersey → ConnecticutBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: New Jersey → ConnecticutHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: New Jersey → ConnecticutTwo part-year returns
Other New Jersey pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in New Jersey and work remotely for a Connecticut employer. Which state do I pay?
New Jersey taxes the income and Connecticut cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: New Jersey reaches all of a resident's income, and Connecticut has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
New Jersey. Your employer should withhold New Jersey tax rather than Connecticut tax on these wages. If a Connecticut line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Connecticut employer's location alone create a Connecticut tax obligation?
No. Connecticut 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 Connecticut are a different matter — those are Connecticut-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The New Jersey and Connecticut rules on this page were last checked against New Jersey Division of Taxation and Connecticut Department of Revenue Services 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.
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07
- Connecticut Department of Revenue Services — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07