Live in South Carolina, Work Remotely for a North Dakota Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
South Carolina taxes the income and North Dakota cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: South Carolina reaches all of a resident's income, and North Dakota 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. North Dakota takes nothing, but South Carolina still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your South Carolina return.
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 | North Dakota | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 2 (Form NDW-R) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form SC1040 with Schedule NR | Form ND-1 with Schedule ND-1NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form SC1040TC | Schedule ND-1CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | South Carolina Department of Revenue | North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in North Dakota 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 → North DakotaBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: South Carolina → North DakotaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: South Carolina → North DakotaTwo part-year returns
Other South Carolina pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in South Carolina and work remotely for a North Dakota employer. Which state do I pay?
South Carolina taxes the income and North Dakota cannot. Residency, not the location of the job, drives this answer: South Carolina reaches all of a resident's income, and North Dakota has no personal income tax to apply to the part earned inside its borders.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
South Carolina. Your employer should withhold South Carolina tax rather than North Dakota tax on these wages. If a North Dakota line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my North Dakota employer's location alone create a North Dakota tax obligation?
No. North Dakota 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 North Dakota are a different matter — those are North Dakota-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The South Carolina and North Dakota rules on this page were last checked against South Carolina Department of Revenue and North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner 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
- North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07