Live in Rhode Island, Work Remotely for a Kansas Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Rhode Island taxes the income and Kansas cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Rhode Island reaches all of a resident's income, and Kansas has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
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 Rhode Island still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Rhode Island return.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Rhode Island
File a Rhode Island resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Rhode Island | Kansas | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form RI-1040NR | Form K-40 with Schedule S Part B |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form RI-1040NR Schedule II | Form K-40 (credit for taxes paid to other states) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Rhode Island Division of Taxation | Kansas Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Kansas and working in Rhode Island 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: Rhode Island → KansasBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Rhode Island → KansasHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Rhode Island → KansasTwo part-year returns
Other Rhode Island pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Rhode Island and work remotely for a Kansas employer. Which state do I pay?
Rhode Island taxes the income and Kansas cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: Rhode Island reaches all of a resident's income, and Kansas has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Rhode Island. Your employer should withhold Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island and Kansas rules on this page were last checked against Rhode Island Division of Taxation 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.
- Rhode Island Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Kansas Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07