# If I lived in one state but worked in another, who would I pay state income taxes to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090 "2009-04-14T17:11:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/21 "2009-04-15T01:24:07Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Traveling employees (which includes professional athletes) pay income taxes in their state of employment and state of residence, if applicable. > > Yankees players don’t pay California income taxes unless they live there, Your statement contradicts the cite from **RealityChuck**. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/22 "2009-04-15T01:30:54Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Heh - and partners in the accounting firms themselves have a very complex tax situation - as they are partners, not employees, they have ownership interest (and therefore income from) an entity that has a presence in many states. Their returns are… interesting. (speaking from hearsay - I used to work for one of the Big Eight but not as an accountant and there was no chance I was going to become a partner, so the details didn’t matter to me). A friend of mine made partner at a law firm in DC, and now he has to pay taxes in France. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/23 "2009-04-15T01:55:45Z")
My dad was an airline pilot and quite a few states asked him to pay for time spent in their airspace. His company had a form letter to send them to tell them to jump in a lake. He lived in Nevada where there is no state income tax. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/24 "2009-04-15T02:09:56Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > My dad was an airline pilot and quite a few states asked him to pay for time spent in their airspace. His company had a form letter to send them to tell them to jump in a lake. What if the NASA Space Shuttle was in geo synchronous orbit over New York? Should the astronauts pay New York state income tax? How about NTSB accident investigators who spend a few months out of state investigating a crash. Do states hunt them down too? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/25 "2009-04-15T07:08:44Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I don’t think you have to pay state taxes in both states. Isn’t that some kind of double jeapordy? It seems to me like it should violate the whole “no taxation without representation” thing and therefore be unconstitutional. If I live in New Jersey but am paying income tax in NY I should be able to vote out of office the people creating that tax to make them accountable. On the other hand, you could probably make a similar claim about sales tax and that would be a logistical nightmare.. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/26 "2009-04-15T07:21:19Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > It seems to me like it should violate the whole “no taxation without representation” thing and therefore be unconstitutional. That was a political slogan used by the colonists in their rebellion against the English King. But that is NOT in the Constitution they wrote for themselves after winning their rebellion. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/27 "2009-04-15T13:10:16Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Your statement contradicts the cite from **RealityChuck**. Huh… so it does. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090/28 "2009-04-15T13:58:48Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > I don’t know if this is still true, but at one time New York state and IIRC New York City taxed the full annual income of anyone who worked in NYC even one day. At the time the company I worked for had many offices in both NJ and NY, and when this law came into effect, there was a blanket policy that NJ employees would no longer attend any meetings in NY, unless their normal work required them to go there anyway. There was also a time when NY somehow was able to tax not only the wages of a person who worked in NY, but if they filed a joint return they had to include their spouse’s income on their NY tax return. That’s not true today; I just finished a NY non-resident return. It’s a little more complicated than this, but essentially the return calculates your NY income as a percentage of total, and then figures taxes based on that. There are various adjustments to your deductions to account for differences in NY v. federal law, but it’s not outrageously complicated or onerous. I’ve not really ever had a significant financial hardship due to working in states I didn’t live in. The worst part is the paperwork, but as for the dollars I give (or get back) to the various state governments, it usually works itself out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-lived-in-one-state-but-worked-in-another-who-would-i-pay-state-income-taxes-to/493090.md?page=1)