Live in Virginia, Work Remotely for a Missouri Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Only Virginia taxes you. Missouri levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Missouri return. Virginia taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Missouri 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 Missouri adds nothing on top.
Missouri also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Kansas City and St. Louis each levy a one per cent earnings tax on wages earned inside the city, collected by the city. Nonresidents pay it on the portion of work performed there.
What you file
- 1Resident return · Virginia
File a Virginia resident return reporting all of your income.
The two states, side by side
| Virginia | Missouri | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 5 (Form VA-4) | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 763 | Form MO-1040 with Form MO-NRI |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OSC | Form MO-CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Virginia Department of Taxation | Missouri Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Missouri 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 → MissouriBoth states — credit offsets the double tax
- 1099 contractor: Virginia → MissouriHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Virginia → MissouriTwo part-year returns
Other Virginia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Virginia and work remotely for a Missouri employer. Which state do I pay?
Only Virginia taxes you. Missouri levies no personal income tax on wages, so nothing is withheld there and you file no Missouri return. Virginia taxes its residents on all income wherever earned, which means your Missouri 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 Missouri tax on these wages. If a Missouri line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
Does my Missouri employer's location alone create a Missouri tax obligation?
No. Missouri 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 Missouri are a different matter — those are Missouri-source income and can require a nonresident return.
How current is this?
The Virginia and Missouri rules on this page were last checked against Virginia Department of Taxation and Missouri 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
- Missouri Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07