Live in South Carolina, Work Remotely for a New Jersey Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only South Carolina taxes you. New Jersey levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no New Jersey return. South Carolina taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your New Jersey earnings go on a South Carolina 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. South Carolina reaches all of a resident's income, and New Jersey adds nothing on top.
What you file
- 1Resident return · South Carolina
File a South Carolina resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| South Carolina | New Jersey | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 1 (Form NJ-165) |
| Convenience rule | No | Only against convenience-rule states |
| Nonresident return | Form SC1040 with Schedule NR | Form NJ-1040NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form SC1040TC | Schedule NJ-COJ |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | South Carolina Department of Revenue | New Jersey Division of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in New Jersey and working in South Carolina 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: South Carolina → New JerseyBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: South Carolina → New JerseyHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: South Carolina → New JerseyTwo part-year returns
Other South Carolina pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in South Carolina and work remotely for a New Jersey employer. Which state do I pay?
Only South Carolina taxes you. New Jersey levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no New Jersey return. South Carolina taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your New Jersey earnings go on a South Carolina resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
South Carolina. Your employer should withhold South Carolina tax rather than New Jersey tax on these wages. If a New Jersey line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my New Jersey employer's location alone create a New Jersey tax obligation?
No. New Jersey 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 New Jersey are a different matter — those are New Jersey-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The South Carolina and New Jersey rules on this page were last checked against South Carolina Department of Revenue and New Jersey Division of Taxation 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.
- South Carolina Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- New Jersey Division of Taxation — Convenience of the Employer Ruleaccessed 2026-08-07