Live in North Dakota, Work Remotely for a Oregon Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only North Dakota taxes you. Oregon levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Oregon return. North Dakota taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Oregon earnings go on a North Dakota resident return in full.
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. North Dakota 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 · North Dakota
File a North Dakota resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| North Dakota | Oregon | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 2 (Form NDW-R) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form ND-1 with Schedule ND-1NR | Form OR-40-N |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule ND-1CR | Schedule OR-ASC-NP |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner | Oregon Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Oregon and working in North Dakota 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: North Dakota → OregonBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: North Dakota → OregonHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: North Dakota → OregonTwo part-year returns
Other North Dakota pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in North Dakota and work remotely for a Oregon employer. Which state do I pay?
Only North Dakota taxes you. Oregon levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Oregon return. North Dakota taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Oregon earnings go on a North Dakota resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
North Dakota. Your employer should withhold North Dakota 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 North Dakota and Oregon rules on this page were last checked against North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner 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.
- North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Oregon Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07