Live in Utah, Work Remotely for a Hawaii Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only Utah taxes you. Hawaii levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Hawaii return. Utah taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Hawaii earnings go on a Utah resident return in full.
Last verified
The instinct that working in a no-tax state means paying no tax is the single most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Hawaii takes nothing, but Utah still taxes residents on income earned anywhere, so the full amount lands on your Utah return.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Utah
File a Utah resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Utah | Hawaii | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — flat | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form TC-40 with Schedule TC-40B | Form N-15 |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule TC-40S | Schedule CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Utah State Tax Commission | Hawaii Department of Taxation |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Hawaii and working in Utah 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: Utah → HawaiiBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Utah → HawaiiHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Utah → HawaiiTwo part-year returns
Other Utah pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Utah and work remotely for a Hawaii employer. Which state do I pay?
Only Utah taxes you. Hawaii levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Hawaii return. Utah taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Hawaii earnings go on a Utah resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Utah. Your employer should withhold Utah tax rather than Hawaii tax on these wages. If a Hawaii line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Hawaii employer's location alone create a Hawaii tax obligation?
No. Hawaii 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 Hawaii are a different matter — those are Hawaii-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Utah and Hawaii rules on this page were last checked against Utah State Tax Commission and Hawaii Department 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.
- Utah State Tax Commission — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Hawaii Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07