Live in Texas, Work Remotely for a Maryland Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Maryland cannot follow the paycheck home. Because Maryland sources wages to the place of performance and you perform them in Texas, the income is Texas-source; and Texas does not tax wages. The result is no state income tax on these earnings at all.
Last verified
An employer's address is not a tax nexus for its employees. Working from Texas keeps the income Texas-source, and since Texas levies no tax on wages, the income lands nowhere at all.
Maryland also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies its own income tax, collected on the state return. A reciprocity agreement exempts wages from the Maryland state tax only — it never reaches the county tax. Nonresidents who are not covered by an agreement pay a special nonresident rate in place of the county tax. Pennsylvania carries one further condition: a Pennsylvania resident exempt from the Maryland state tax remains liable for the Maryland local tax unless their own Pennsylvania jurisdiction imposes no earnings tax on Maryland residents.
What you file
There is nothing to file in either Texas or Maryland on these wages. Your federal return is unaffected — the federal government taxes the income whatever the states do.
The two states, side by side
| Texas | Maryland | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 4 (Form MW507) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Form 505 with Form 505NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | Form 502CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts | Comptroller of Maryland |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Maryland and working in Texas 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: Texas → MarylandWork state only
- 1099 contractor: Texas → MarylandClient state only, if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Texas → MarylandOne part-year return — the state you moved to
Other Texas pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Texas and work remotely for a Maryland employer. Which state do I pay?
Maryland cannot follow the paycheck home. Because Maryland sources wages to the place of performance and you perform them in Texas, the income is Texas-source; and Texas does not tax wages. The result is no state income tax on these earnings at all.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Neither. There is no state income tax to withhold on either side of this pairing, so a state line on your pay stub for Texas or Maryland is an error worth querying.
Does my Maryland employer's location alone create a Maryland tax obligation?
No. Maryland 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 Maryland are a different matter — those are Maryland-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Texas and Maryland rules on this page were last checked against Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and Comptroller of Maryland 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.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Comptroller of Maryland — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Maryland — Form MW507accessed 2026-08-07