Live in Washington, Work Remotely for a South Dakota Employer: Who Taxes You?
Answer
Both states leave your wages alone. Washington and South Dakota each levy no personal income tax on earnings, so your paycheck shows no state withholding line and neither revenue department expects a return from you at the end of the year.
Last verified
Nine states levy no personal income tax on wages, and both ends of this commute are among them. That makes Washington to South Dakota one of the few pairings where the usual questions — who withholds, which return comes first, whether a credit covers the gap — simply do not arise.
What you file
There is nothing to file in either Washington or South Dakota on these wages. Your federal return is unaffected — the federal government taxes the income whatever the states do.
The two states, side by side
| Washington | South Dakota | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | No |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | No income tax |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Washington State Department of Revenue | South Dakota Department of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in South Dakota and working in Washington gives:No state income tax either side.
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: Washington → South DakotaNo state income tax either side
- 1099 contractor: Washington → South DakotaNo state income tax either side
- Moved mid-year: Washington → South DakotaNo state return either side
Other Washington pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Washington and work remotely for a South Dakota employer. Which state do I pay?
Both states leave your wages alone. Washington and South Dakota each levy no personal income tax on earnings, so your paycheck shows no state withholding line and neither revenue department expects a return from you at the end of the year.
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 Washington or South Dakota is an error worth querying.
How current is this?
The Washington and South Dakota rules on this page were last checked against Washington State Department of Revenue and South Dakota 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.
- Washington State Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- South Dakota Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07