Live in Alaska, Work in Utah: Which State Taxes Your Paycheck?
Answer
Utah withholds, Alaska does not. As a Alaska resident you have no home-state income tax return at all, so the Utah nonresident return is the whole of your state filing. Nothing offsets the Utah tax, because a credit has to be claimed against a home-state tax that does not exist.
Last verified
Living in a state with no income tax removes the resident return, but it does not shelter income you earn somewhere else. Utah taxes what is earned inside Utah, whoever earns it, and a nonresident return is how that gets settled.
What you file
- 1Nonresident return · UtahForm TC-40 with Schedule TC-40B
File a Utah nonresident return for the wages you earned in Utah. Alaska has no wage income tax, so there is no second return and no credit to claim.
The two states, side by side
| Alaska | Utah | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | Yes — flat |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Form TC-40 with Schedule TC-40B |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | Schedule TC-40S |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | None published |
| Local income tax | No | No |
| Revenue department | Alaska Department of Revenue — Tax Division | Utah State Tax Commission |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Utah and working in Alaska 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.
- Remote worker: Alaska → UtahNo state income tax on your wages
- 1099 contractor: Alaska → UtahClient state only, if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Alaska → UtahOne part-year return — the state you moved to
Other Alaska pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Alaska and work in Utah. Which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
Utah withholds, Alaska does not. As a Alaska resident you have no home-state income tax return at all, so the Utah nonresident return is the whole of your state filing. Nothing offsets the Utah tax, because a credit has to be claimed against a home-state tax that does not exist.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Utah. The wages are sourced to Utah, so Utah withholding is correct and there is no Alaska withholding to set up, because Alaska levies no income tax on wages.
How current is this?
The Alaska and Utah rules on this page were last checked against Alaska Department of Revenue — Tax Division and Utah State Tax Commission 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.
- Alaska Department of Revenue — Tax Division — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Utah State Tax Commission — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07