Do I need a new W2 and other tax questions

March 23, 2013 9:34 PM

I lived in two states last year, but apparently only paid taxes in one. Now what?

I telework and I worked for the same company for all of 2012. I lived in DC from Jan-September and moved to another state and took residency of that state for October-December (through present day).

HOWEVER apparently my company didn't change this in their system/didn't acknowledge my change of state form/I probably messed up too and the only state I paid taxes for was DC and I paid them for all of 2012. I have paid zero taxes for my new state for 2012.

What do I do now? Do I ask my employer for an amended W2? Can I just go to H&R Block and have their Tax Professionals fix this for me? Am I going to tax prison or is this not as bad as I think it is?

Am I right to assume that I will get a refund from DC and will obviously owe taxes in new state?


I know YANML or CPA, but I'd appreciate any advice. Googling didn't do much for me.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Am I right to assume that I will get a refund from DC and will obviously owe taxes in new state?

Some states don't have state income taxes, so no.
posted by jacalata at 9:56 PM on March 23, 2013

Additionally, some states have reciprocal tax codes--for example, we lived part of the year in Ohio, and part in PA. All the money was earned in Ohio, and all taxes were paid in Ohio. No taxes were owed to Pennsylvania, because OH and PA have some sort of reciprocity agreement.

I'm afraid that if you want a more definite answer, you're going to have to have someone post what state you're in.
posted by MeghanC at 10:12 PM on March 23, 2013

The W-2 is an accounting of what you got paid and what you paid. There's no reason to change it if it's accurate about what came to you and went out to the Feds and DC.

So, yeah, you'll get a refund on the overpayments to DC and owe your new state whatever the tax would be for October through December.

You just have to file accurate tax forms and pay what you owe. People's employers mess stuff up all the time.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:14 PM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

And you are absolutely not going to tax prison or even getting a fine for this. The error was your employer's. You just have to pay everyone what you owe them by April 15.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:16 PM on March 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

Each state is going to have its own part-year resident form. You will need these to pro-rate accordingly.

H&R Block people are trained in basic scenarios but complex stuff can be hit or miss -- this situation may well be the first one your preparer (there) has faced. You're better off going the CPA route with this if you're short of confidence.

only state I paid taxes for

Since you haven't filed, you haven't really paid anyone any taxes. DC withheld taxes from your income, quite possibly more than you owe (normal in these situations). Just so you know, because paying and withholding are not really the same thing. It's more like an escrow account.
posted by dhartung at 11:51 PM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Have you filed your taxes for this year? If not, there probably isn't a problem at all and this should be something TurboTax can handle (when I've filed multiple state returns, one of them has always been in Illinois and TurboTax doesn't/didn't do Illinois for free even if you qualify for a free federal return, so I did it myself). If you did something like move from DC to Virginia, H&R Block should know how to do this. If you moved to the middle of a big state, where everyone works in the same state as they live, then maybe not. Your public library or some community organisation may have free tax help, too, if you start doing it yourself and get stuck.

Also, did your job move or just your residence? It's not obvious to me from what you've described that anything's wrong with your W2. It sounds like your employer pays you in DC and withheld federal and DC taxes. Wherever you live now will want tax for the six months (or whatever) you lived there, but they give you credit for the tax withheld in DC.

For example, I worked in Indiana while living in Illinois. I got a W2 that showed tax withheld for Indiana state (and local) taxes. I filed an Indiana return and an Illinois return. The Illinois return included some form about tax paid to Indiana. I theoretically owed Illinois $X, but I'd already paid Indiana $X, so I didn't have to pay Illinois. (Illinois and Indiana don't have an agreement. I think if I'd worked in Wisconsin, there would have been fewer forms involved.)
posted by hoyland at 12:37 PM on March 24, 2013