Live in New Jersey, Work Remotely for a Louisiana Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
One state, one return: New Jersey. Louisiana has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your New Jersey resident return reports the Louisiana income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Louisiana 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. New Jersey reaches all of a resident's income, and Louisiana adds nothing on top.
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 | Louisiana | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — flat |
| Reciprocity partners | 1 (Form NJ-165) | None |
| Convenience rule | Only against convenience-rule states | No |
| Nonresident return | Form NJ-1040NR | Form IT-540B |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule NJ-COJ | Schedule G (Form IT-540) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | New Jersey Division of Taxation | Louisiana Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Louisiana 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 → LouisianaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: New Jersey → LouisianaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: New Jersey → LouisianaTwo part-year returns
Other New Jersey pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in New Jersey and work remotely for a Louisiana employer. Which state do I pay?
One state, one return: New Jersey. Louisiana has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your New Jersey resident return reports the Louisiana income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Louisiana charged you nothing.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
New Jersey. Your employer should withhold New Jersey tax rather than Louisiana tax on these wages. If a Louisiana line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Louisiana employer's location alone create a Louisiana tax obligation?
No. Louisiana 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 Louisiana are a different matter — those are Louisiana-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The New Jersey and Louisiana rules on this page were last checked against New Jersey Division of Taxation and Louisiana 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.
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07
- Louisiana Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07