Live in Tennessee, Work in Maryland: Which State Taxes Your Paycheck?
Answer
Only Maryland taxes you. Maryland withholds from wages earned inside the state and you file a Maryland nonresident return. Tennessee levies no personal income tax on wages, so there is no resident return on the other side — and no credit, because there is no Tennessee tax to offset.
Last verified
This is the mirror image of the more common commute. There is no home-state return to file, so the Maryland nonresident return carries the whole obligation — and because Tennessee charges nothing, there is no credit mechanism involved anywhere.
Maryland also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies its own income tax, collected on the state return. A reciprocity agreement exempts wages from the Maryland state tax only — it never reaches the county tax. Nonresidents who are not covered by an agreement pay a special nonresident rate in place of the county tax. Pennsylvania carries one further condition: a Pennsylvania resident exempt from the Maryland state tax remains liable for the Maryland local tax unless their own Pennsylvania jurisdiction imposes no earnings tax on Maryland residents.
What you file
- 1Nonresident return · MarylandForm 505 with Form 505NR
File a Maryland nonresident return for the wages you earned in Maryland. Tennessee has no wage income tax, so there is no second return and no credit to claim.
The two states, side by side
| Tennessee | Maryland | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | 4 (Form MW507) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Form 505 with Form 505NR |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | Form 502CR |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Tennessee Department of Revenue | Comptroller of Maryland |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Maryland and working in Tennessee 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: Tennessee → MarylandNo state income tax on your wages
- 1099 contractor: Tennessee → MarylandClient state only, if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Tennessee → MarylandOne part-year return — the state you moved to
Other Tennessee pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Tennessee and work in Maryland. Which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
Only Maryland taxes you. Maryland withholds from wages earned inside the state and you file a Maryland nonresident return. Tennessee levies no personal income tax on wages, so there is no resident return on the other side — and no credit, because there is no Tennessee tax to offset.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Maryland. The wages are sourced to Maryland, so Maryland withholding is correct and there is no Tennessee withholding to set up, because Tennessee levies no income tax on wages.
How current is this?
The Tennessee and Maryland rules on this page were last checked against Tennessee Department of Revenue and Comptroller of Maryland 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.
- Tennessee Department of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Comptroller of Maryland — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Maryland — Form MW507accessed 2026-08-07