Question

Massachusetts Income Tax for Non-Resident working Remotely

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 3, 2022
1 reply
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Hello! I accepted a new position as a financial consultant for a company that is headquartered in Massachusetts. I live in Washington State and was hired to mainly help clients on the West Coast. I have never been to MA and no plans to be there at all. I was not told by the employer I would have to pay MA income taxes, but in reading the employee handbook, sounds like they will withhold. And it seems the DOR site says I will have to pay state income tax since the company is located in MA, but all my past experience and what I find on Intuit is that I don't have to. I did send a request to MA DOR to clarify, but hoping someone can respond before I get the answer as I am to start Monday. If I had known this was the case, I would have negotiated a higher salary. In WA, we don't have an income tax, instead we pay really high sales taxes (over 10%), higher property taxes and excessive gas taxes. I can't avoid that since I live here so in essence I would be double taxed.

Looking for some advice or resources to help me not pay the MA income tax.

Thank you!

Not A Product Question

AmyC

You will be paying tax. MA taxes MA sourced income. In the MA Non-resident Tax Instructions, page 3, are the filing requirements. You must file Massachusetts Form 1-NR/PY, Nonresident/Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return if you were not a resident of Massachusetts for any part of the year and the lesser of either:

1. Your Massachusetts source income was more than $8,000; or

2. Your Massachusetts source income was more than your personal exemption amount multiplied by the ratio of your Massachusetts income to your total income.

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S

Smiles and JoyAuthor

Thank you Amy for your response! I read that information on the website, but they still don't specifically call out if you are a non-resident AND don't actually work in the state. I did get a response first thing this morning from the MA DOR saying I do NOT have to pay state income taxes. Below is their brief response. Kudos to them for being so quick to respond! I don't usually have such a quick turnaround on DOR questions. And it cracks me up that they say I don't have to pay taxes, but they started the letter out "Dear Taxpayer". I guess technically we all are taxpayers, just where was the question! 🙂

Thank you!

Massachusetts Department of Revenue

Thursday, March 03, 2022 07:26 AM

Dear Taxpayer, Thank you for your recent inquiry. If you do not live or physically work in MA, you are not subject to MA tax and your employer should not be withholding MA tax.
Thank you for visiting our website, The Massachusetts Department of Revenue

L

Lucylu1688

omg, that solved my big headache. I started with a MA firm this past November, but live in Seattle area. I was struggling with the same thing as we're paying 10.2% tax here already!! I work remotely because the company couldn't find similar talents locally, and I was supposed to be exempt because my hire was for the convenience of the employer, not me.