The usual advice is that a state taxes wages for work done inside it. A handful of states add a twist: if you work from home in another state for an employer located in theirs, they can still treat those days as worked at the employer's office, unless the employer required you to be elsewhere. For someone who moved to a state with no wage tax, that is the difference between paying nothing on those days and paying the employer's state on all of them.
The same invented year as the 183-day guide: a Florida-based employee on a $140,000 salary whose employer is in New York. They spend 132 workdays physically in New York and 107 in Florida (239 workdays in all, weekdays only, holidays not modelled).
| Reading | Workdays claimed by New York | Wages New York may claim |
|---|---|---|
| Physical location only | 132 | $77,322 |
| Convenience-of-the-employer rule applies | 239 | $140,000 |
The 107 Florida workdays carry $62,678 of pay. Florida has no wage income tax, so there is no Florida return on which to claim a credit for what New York collects on it: the exposure is not offset. Whether the rule applies depends on whether the employer required the Florida work, which a calculator cannot tell and a payroll or tax professional can.
A rule used by a few states, commonly listed as New York, Nebraska, Delaware and Arkansas, under which days you work from home outside the state for an employer located in the state are still treated as in-state workdays unless the employer required you to work elsewhere. Allowing remote work is not the same as requiring it. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut are commonly described as applying the rule only against residents of states that apply it to them. Check the state's current guidance.
It can try, under the rule above. A state with no wage income tax, such as Florida or Texas, gives you no return on which to claim a credit for tax paid to the employer's state, so the exposure is not offset. This is the case where the rule costs the most and the reason to keep a workday record.
Keep a day-by-day record of where you worked, ask your employer whether the work location is required for the job or a personal choice, ask payroll how wages are being allocated, and speak to a tax professional before filing. The counter shows the days and the wages each reading would claim; it does not decide which reading applies to you.