Live in South Carolina, Work Remotely for a Oregon Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
One state, one return: South Carolina. Oregon has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your South Carolina resident return reports the Oregon income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Oregon charged you nothing.
Last verified
The instinct that working in a no-tax state means paying no tax is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Oregon takes nothing, but South Carolina still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your South Carolina return.
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 · South Carolina
File a South Carolina resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| South Carolina | Oregon | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form SC1040 with Schedule NR | Form OR-40-N |
| Credit for other-state tax | Form SC1040TC | Schedule OR-ASC-NP |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | South Carolina Department of Revenue | Oregon Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Oregon 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 → OregonBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: South Carolina → OregonHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: South Carolina → OregonTwo part-year returns
Other South Carolina pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in South Carolina and work remotely for a Oregon employer. Which state do I pay?
One state, one return: South Carolina. Oregon has no wage income tax, so working there changes nothing about what you owe. Your South Carolina resident return reports the Oregon income along with everything else, and there is no credit to claim because Oregon charged you nothing.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
South Carolina. Your employer should withhold South Carolina 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 South Carolina and Oregon rules on this page were last checked against South Carolina Department of Revenue 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.
- South Carolina Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Oregon Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07