: State taxes for convoluted NY/NJ work situation I lived in New York the entire year and worked in my New York City office the first half of the year. After that my offices were moved to New Jersey and I worked remotely from

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Do I need to file an NJ non-resident tax return?

Probably. You were receiving income from a NJ employer. Though if it is W2 employment, they should have already removed NJ tax on your Paycheck. However 20% of half a year is only about 13 days - less than three weeks. If they didn't report any income to NJ, then you may not need to file an NJ return. To be on the safe side, if I were you, I would file a NJ non-resident return anyway.

Could I possibly save some money in both state and local (NYC) taxes by filing an NJ non-resident tax return for the half-year 20% of the time I worked in NJ?

No. The way it works is you owe New York taxes on your entire income, but you get a credit for any tax paid to NJ. Whichever way it is done, it simply works out as the whichever state is higher.

How do I make sure I don't get double taxed?

As long as the returns are filled in correctly, you shouldn't be.

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This is one of the cases where using tax software will help. You'd need to buy the 2nd state, as the typical SW has one state free. From there, the SW will ask where you spent your time, and fill out the forms correctly.

Tax paid to one state get's credited for the other. As NY is higher anyway, NJ will not raise your tax, but take a cut away from NY. I believe the term is they "get a taste" of NY's piece of your action.