Live in Virginia, Work Remotely for a District of Columbia Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only Virginia taxes you. District of Columbia levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no District of Columbia return. Virginia taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your District of Columbia earnings go on a Virginia 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. Virginia reaches all of a resident's income, and District of Columbia adds nothing on top.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Virginia
File a Virginia resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Virginia | District of Columbia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 5 (Form VA-4) | 2 (Form D-4A) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 763 | None — nonresidents exempt |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OSC | Schedule U (Form D-40) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | Not applicable |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Virginia Department of Taxation | District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in District of Columbia and working in Virginia 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: Virginia → District of ColumbiaNonresidents are exempt by statute
- 1099 contractor: Virginia → District of ColumbiaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Virginia → District of ColumbiaTwo part-year returns
Other Virginia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Virginia and work remotely for a District of Columbia employer. Which state do I pay?
Only Virginia taxes you. District of Columbia levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no District of Columbia return. Virginia taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your District of Columbia earnings go on a Virginia resident return in full.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Virginia. Your employer should withhold Virginia tax rather than District of Columbia tax on these wages. If a District of Columbia line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my District of Columbia employer's location alone create a District of Columbia tax obligation?
No. District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia are a different matter — those are District of Columbia-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Virginia and District of Columbia rules on this page were last checked against Virginia Department of Taxation and District of Columbia Office of Tax and 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.
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07
- District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07