How problematic is it if my W-2 has a wrong address?
March 7, 2016 10:09 PM   Subscribe

I resigned from my Washington, DC employer in September 2015. At the time, I was living in Virginia, and for the past 5 years had been paying VA state taxes. 2 weeks later, I moved to Maryland. I just received my W-2 from the DC firm, and it lists my Maryland address, even though I never filed a new W-4, and I never lived in Maryland during the time I worked for my DC employer. Everywhere else it indicates Virginia as the state, Virginia state income tax, etc. How problematic is it if my address is incorrect?

What should I do? I left my Maryland address with my former employer as a forwarding address, only.

I'm worried that the income will be reported to both Virginia and Maryland, even though I was only living in Virginia for the entire period during which I was employed by the DC firm.

You are not my tax accountant, nor my attorney, and nothing posted herein will be construed as legal or tax advice. Thanks in advance.
posted by invisible ink to Law & Government (5 answers total)
 
I doubt it will be a problem. You normally report the number of months you lived in each state and it's not unusual to have a wrong address on a W2. If you're doing your own taxes online and want to check, try switching back and forth between the correct and actual addresses on the W2 entry form--I'm guessing it will make no difference in the amount owed in each state.
posted by chaiminda at 3:28 AM on March 8, 2016


I'm worried that the income will be reported to both Virginia and Maryland, even though I was only living in Virginia for the entire period during which I was employed by the DC firm.

I think this is almost certainly the case. If you have a W2 with a Maryland address, then Maryland is also going to receive the W2 and know about the income.

In your position I would go to a tax preparer. If I wanted to avoid that, I would look into filing a non-resident Maryland return to recoup any taxes that are withheld to Maryland. Ignoring this as an "address mistake" is probably not the best option.

I am not a tax preparer. I did however move between states many years ago and had income in both states that calendar year. The W2s for my second employer did end up going to multiple states, despite not having worked in the second state. I too thought it had to have been a mistake, but it did create bureaucratic problems, I did not file the paperwork correctly, and I wished afterwards I would have just hired a professional.
posted by cotterpin at 3:46 AM on March 8, 2016


Best answer: Presumably you're filling out a partial-year Virginia state return and a partial-year Maryland return? That is where you will explain what tax got paid in what state and when.
posted by mskyle at 4:38 AM on March 8, 2016


Best answer: Cotterpin is well-meaning but incorrect, at least if this is done properly--the caveat of course is that people screw up payroll all kinds of ways, so it's still theoretically possible? But it shouldn't matter.

Most W-2s get put into window envelopes just for ease of mailing. It doesn't say anything about where the actual work was done; it's just your mailing address at year-end. You don't owe state tax based on your mailing address. PO boxes are totally valid, there, for example. The W-2 address is just where the W-2 is being sent, and I'm pretty sure the taxing authorities care not at all what it says unless there's some kind of problem elsewhere. They do a bunch of computer matching to figure out which W-2 goes to which taxpayer, but your ID number is going to be the defining factor there unless, say, they entered it wrong. Then, when you filed a return as Jane Smith of 123 Maple Street in Silver Spring, and they had a W-2 that said it was for Jane Smith of 123 Maple Street in Silver Spring, the fact that the social security number they had was for John Doe of Seattle would probably mean the computer would figure it out without needing any help. In that case, having your most recent address on your W-2 is way more useful for them.

If there's not a Maryland ID number for the employer on there, Maryland shouldn't have gotten any information about this. Your employer would only be filing a year-end document with Maryland if they'd been doing Maryland withholding. Doesn't matter, anyway; as mskyle notes, each state's going to ask you about the allocation of the data that shows up on your federal return.
posted by Sequence at 5:44 AM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


You will need to file partial-year returns for both MD and VA for the split year. On those returns, you will document how much money you made in each part of the year. The address reported on the W2 doesn't matter. Unless there was a period where you were living in one state but working in another, this will be entirely straightforward, and you would have had to do it no matter how they reported your income.
posted by ubiquity at 2:08 PM on March 8, 2016


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