Living in One State and Working in Another: W-2 Withholding, State by State

You are on a payroll, you live in one state, and you drive or take the train to a job in another. Which state withholds, which return you file, and which exemption form stops the double withholding.

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.

SituationYou live inWork / employer in

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

This form needs JavaScript to answer in place — but nothing here is JavaScript-only. Every one of the 10,200 answers is also a normal page: pick your situation and your home state from the lists below and you will land on the same result, with the same sources.

The rule that decides this

Two things happen at once when you cross a state line to work. The state where the work is done taxes the income because it was earned there, and the state where you live taxes it because you live there. Both claims are valid, and neither state gives way on its own.

There are three ways that overlap gets resolved, and which one applies is decided entirely by the pair of states. If one of them levies no wage tax, there is no overlap to resolve. If the two hold a reciprocity agreement, the work state agrees in advance not to tax you — but only if you hand your employer that state's exemption certificate, which is the step people miss. Otherwise the overlap is unwound after the fact, on your resident return, through the credit for taxes paid to another state.

The credit is where the money is lost. It is capped at what your home state would have charged on the same income, so when the work state taxes more heavily, the difference is not refunded by anyone. That cap, not the existence of two returns, is what makes the direction of a commute financially different from its reverse.

All 51 jurisdictions

Every state, with how its 50 outbound pairs break down in this situation. A high alert count means most people leaving that state for work in another one land in a complicated position.

Live in	Simple	Two returns
Alabama	10	40
Alaska	9	41
Arizona	10	40
Arkansas	10	40
California	10	40
Colorado	10	40
Connecticut	10	40
Delaware	10	40
District of Columbia	11	39
Florida	9	41
Georgia	10	40
Hawaii	10	40
Idaho	10	40
Illinois	14	36
Indiana	15	35
Iowa	11	39
Kansas	10	40
Kentucky	17	33
Louisiana	10	40
Maine	10	40
Maryland	13	37
Massachusetts	10	40
Michigan	16	34
Minnesota	12	38
Mississippi	10	40
Missouri	10	40
Montana	11	39
Nebraska	10	40
Nevada	9	41
New Hampshire	9	41
New Jersey	11	39
New Mexico	10	40
New York	10	40
North Carolina	10	40
North Dakota	12	38
Ohio	15	35
Oklahoma	10	40
Oregon	10	40
Pennsylvania	16	34
Rhode Island	10	40
South Carolina	10	40
South Dakota	9	41
Tennessee	9	41
Texas	9	41
Utah	10	40
Vermont	10	40
Virginia	14	36
Washington	9	41
West Virginia	15	35
Wisconsin	14	36
Wyoming	9	41

Pairs where an exemption form does the work

Alabama → District of ColumbiaNonresidents are exempt by statute · Form D-4A to the employer
District of Columbia → MarylandReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MW507 to the employer
Arizona → District of ColumbiaNonresidents are exempt by statute · Form D-4A to the employer
District of Columbia → VirginiaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form VA-4 to the employer
Illinois → IowaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form 44-016 to the employer
Indiana → KentuckyReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form 42A809 to the employer
Iowa → IllinoisReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form IL-W-5-NR to the employer
Kentucky → IllinoisReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form IL-W-5-NR to the employer
Maryland → PennsylvaniaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form REV-419 to the employer
Montana → North DakotaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form NDW-R to the employer
North Dakota → MinnesotaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MWR to the employer
Arkansas → District of ColumbiaNonresidents are exempt by statute · Form D-4A to the employer
Illinois → KentuckyReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form 42A809 to the employer
Indiana → MichiganReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MI-W4 to the employer
Kentucky → IndianaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form WH-47 to the employer
Maryland → VirginiaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form VA-4 to the employer
Michigan → IllinoisReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form IL-W-5-NR to the employer
Michigan → IndianaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form WH-47 to the employer
Minnesota → North DakotaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form NDW-R to the employer
New Jersey → PennsylvaniaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form REV-419 to the employer
North Dakota → MontanaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MW-4 to the employer
Ohio → IndianaReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form WH-47 to the employer
Pennsylvania → MarylandReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MW507 to the employer
Virginia → MarylandReciprocal agreement — file the exemption form · Form MW507 to the employer

The other three situations

Remote workerI work remotely from home for an out-of-state employer — do I owe tax in the employer's state?
1099 contractorI'm a 1099 contractor with a client in another state — do I have to file there?
Moved mid-yearI moved from one state to another mid-year — do I file in both states?

Questions people actually ask

I live in one state and work in another — which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?

You are on a payroll, you live in one state, and you drive or take the train to a job in another. Which state withholds, which return you file, and which exemption form stops the double withholding. There are 51 jurisdictions and 2550 ordered state pairs, and this site publishes the answer for every one of them. Pick your two states above, or use the routing table below.

Which states have income tax reciprocity agreements?

16 jurisdictions hold at least one agreement, covering 30 agreements in total: District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. Each agreement lets a resident of one state work in the other without the work state withholding, provided the employee files that work state's exemption certificate with their employer. The certificate is never automatic and it is never retroactive.

Which states have no income tax on wages?

Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Two of those need a footnote — Washington levies an excise tax on long-term capital gains, and New Hampshire taxed interest and dividends until that levy was repealed. Neither ever reached a paycheck, which is why they belong on this list.

Which states use the convenience-of-the-employer rule?

Six, and they split into two kinds. Delaware, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania apply a general rule to any nonresident employee of an in-state employer. Connecticut and New Jersey apply a mirror version that reaches only residents of states that impose a similar test. This is the single most consequential fact for remote workers, and it is the reason the remote answer often differs from the commuting answer for the same two states.

How often is this checked?

The full 51-jurisdiction grid is re-verified every December, after state legislative sessions close and the following year's forms are published. The convenience-of-the-employer states are re-checked quarterly because that is where the rules move fastest. Every page carries the date its own two states were last checked; the newest across the grid is 2026-08-07.

How this was built

Every answer on this hub comes from one 51-row dataset, each row checked against the state's own revenue department and dated. The same dataset drives the checker at the top of this page and all 2550 pair pages beneath it, which is why the tool and the pages can never disagree. Read themethodologyor the full source list.