Dual-State Withholding Checker
Which state takes the tax out of your paycheck when you live in one and work in another — and what you can file to stop the wrong one taking it.
Which state taxes your paycheck?
Pick where you live, where the work is, and how you are paid. You get the withholding answer, the exemption form if one exists, and the returns to file — with the revenue-department source.
Your answer appears here. There are five possible outcomes:
- Home state only
- Reciprocity — file the form
- Work state only
- Both states, with a credit
- Convenience-rule trap
How it works
- 1Pick your situation
Commuting on a W-2, working remotely for an out-of-state employer, invoicing a client as a 1099 contractor, or moving mid-year. The same two states give different answers in each.
- 2Pick both states
Where you live, and where the work or the employer or the client is. For a mid-year move, the state you left and the state you moved to.
- 3Read the answer and file what it lists
You get which state withholds, the exemption certificate if one exists, and the returns to file in the order they have to be filed. Each answer links to the full page with the revenue-department sources.
Or browse directly
Every answer the checker can give is also a page. Pick a situation, then your home state — the state page lists all 50 outbound and 50 inbound pairs with the answer for each.
About this tool
Does this calculate what I owe?
No, deliberately. This tool tells you which state has the right to tax the income and what you have to file — the mechanics. It never applies a rate and never produces a dollar figure, because that is a return preparer's job and a wrong number costs you money.
Does it work without JavaScript?
The form needs JavaScript to answer in place, but nothing here is JavaScript-only. All 10,200 answers exist as ordinary pages, reachable from the browse grid on this page in two clicks. The tool and the pages run the same rule engine over the same data, so they cannot disagree.
Where does the data come from?
From 51 state revenue departments and nothing else — no aggregators, no secondary summaries. Each of the 51 jurisdiction records carries its own sources and its own last-checked date; the newest across the grid is 2026-08-07. Where a fact could not be established at source, the field is empty and the page says so.
Can I link to a specific result?
Yes. Running the checker updates the address bar with your situation and both states, so the link you copy reopens on the same answer. Every result also links to its permanent page, which is the better thing to share.