Live in Virginia, Work in West Virginia: Which State Taxes Your Paycheck?
Answer
File Form WV/IT-104 and West Virginia takes nothing. Under the reciprocal agreement between Virginia and West Virginia, wages you earn in West Virginia are taxable only by Virginia. The certificate goes to your employer rather than to a revenue department, and it turns two potential returns into one.
Last verified
Reciprocity is the cleanest outcome in multi-state wage tax, and also the one most often missed, because it only works if you file the certificate. The agreement between Virginia and West Virginia does not apply itself: an employer that never receives Form WV/IT-104 keeps withholding.
West Virginia does not tax the wages of residents of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Virginia. The employee certifies nonresidence on Form WV/IT-104.
The certificate goes to your employer's payroll department, not to West Virginia Tax Division, and it is not retroactive — filing it in June does not recover West Virginia tax withheld in January. That money comes back only by filing a West Virginia nonresident return for the year and claiming a refund.
West Virginia also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Some West Virginia municipalities levy a flat weekly city service fee on people who work in the city. It is a fixed charge rather than a percentage of income, so no credit offsets it.
What you file
- 1Give to your employer · West VirginiaForm WV/IT-104
Give your employer Form WV/IT-104 so West Virginia stops withholding. This goes to the employer, not to West Virginia Tax Division — and it is not retroactive, so file it before the first paycheck of the year.
- 2Resident return · Virginia
File a Virginia resident return reporting all of your income, including the wages earned in West Virginia.
The two states, side by side
| Virginia | West Virginia | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | Yes — graduated | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | 5 (Form VA-4) | 5 (Form WV/IT-104) |
| Convenience rule | No | No |
| Nonresident return | Form 763 | Form IT-140 with Schedule A |
| Credit for other-state tax | Schedule OSC | Schedule E (Form IT-140) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | None published | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Virginia Department of Taxation | West Virginia Tax Division |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in West Virginia and working in Virginia gives:Reciprocal agreement — file the exemption form.
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: Virginia → West VirginiaHome state only
- 1099 contractor: Virginia → West VirginiaHome state, plus the client state if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Virginia → West VirginiaTwo part-year returns
Other Virginia pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Virginia and work in West Virginia. Which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
File Form WV/IT-104 and West Virginia takes nothing. Under the reciprocal agreement between Virginia and West Virginia, wages you earn in West Virginia are taxable only by Virginia. The certificate goes to your employer rather than to a revenue department, and it turns two potential returns into one.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Virginia. Your employer should withhold Virginia tax rather than West Virginia tax on these wages, but only once you have given payroll Form WV/IT-104 — the exemption is not automatic and it does not apply retroactively. If a West Virginia line is showing on your pay stub, raise it with payroll now rather than at filing time.
What if West Virginia tax was already withheld from my pay?
File Form WV/IT-104 with your employer to stop it going forward, then recover what was already taken by filing a West Virginia nonresident return for that year and claiming a refund of the full amount. Virginia will still expect its own tax on the same wages, so do not treat the refund as a windfall.
How current is this?
The Virginia and West Virginia rules on this page were last checked against Virginia Department of Taxation and West Virginia Tax Division 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.
- Virginia Department of Taxation — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia — Form VA-4accessed 2026-08-07
- Virginia Tax — Reciprocityaccessed 2026-08-07
- West Virginia Tax Division — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07