Live in Virginia, Work Remotely for a Kansas Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Your home state takes it and the work state does not. Kansas levies no tax on wages; Virginia taxes residents on all income regardless of where it was earned. The result is a single Virginia resident return covering the full amount, with no offsetting credit.
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 Kansas 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 | Kansas | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 5 (Form VA-4) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 763 | Form K-40 with Schedule S Part B |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OSC | Form K-40 (credit for taxes paid to other states) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Virginia Department of Taxation | Kansas Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Kansas 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 → KansasBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Virginia → KansasHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Virginia → KansasTwo part-year returns
Other Virginia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Virginia and work remotely for a Kansas employer. Which state do I pay?
Your home state takes it and the work state does not. Kansas levies no tax on wages; Virginia taxes residents on all income regardless of where it was earned. The result is a single Virginia resident return covering the full amount, with no offsetting credit.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Virginia. Your employer should withhold Virginia tax rather than Kansas tax on these wages. If a Kansas line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Kansas employer's location alone create a Kansas tax obligation?
No. Kansas 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 Kansas are a different matter — those are Kansas-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Virginia and Kansas rules on this page were last checked against Virginia Department of Taxation and Kansas 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.
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07
- Kansas Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07