Taxing dilemma...

April 15, 2011 5:33 AM

11th hour tax filing question...Do I have to file a NY state tax return?

I've been all over the tax sites and have been unable to get an answer. You are not my accountants (I don't have one, lol), and this is not tax advice. Got it.

I was a CT resident from Jan - June of 2010. Moved to NY state on June 15, 2010.
I had a job in CT for Jan & Feb of 2010. Let go at end of Feb 2010.
Collected unemployment from March 2010 - Dec 2010 from State of CT. CT Dept of Labor knows I moved to NY, and sent checks to my NY address as of move date.
I had Fed and CT taxes withheld from unemployment checks.
I filed 2010 Federal and 2010 CT tax returns, and have received refunds from both.
I rent my home here in NY. I do not own any property in CT, NY, or anywhere else. I registered my car in NY and paid the taxes required for such.

Do I have to file a NY State tax return (part-year resident)? I have collected no income from the state of NY at any time in 2010.

I can't seem to figure this out. Calls to state tax offices result in endless hold times. Websites do not answer the question (unless I am missing something).

Any thoughts?

posted by sundrop to Law & Government (9 answers total)

Best answer: just wanted to mention that taxes are not due until April 18th this year due to today being Emancipation Day in DC.
posted by jammy at 5:45 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I doubt it. My job sent me to another state for about six months several years back. I was paid in my home state but rented in the other state. I didn't register my car there but never even considered paying taxes there. I wouldn't worry about it.
posted by JJ86 at 5:57 AM on April 15, 2011

Best answer: You should really speak to the NYS tax department and ask them, even if it means filing for an extension and filing your actual forms later. Unless someone here is a tax accountant, we're not going to be able to tell you what's going on in your situation.

That said, when I moved a few years ago, I was required to file taxes in both states on income I earned while I was living there. My experience was that when I moved from State 1 to State 2, I became a resident of State 2, and that's who I owed taxes to from that day forward. Income I earned in State 1 after my move still required paying tax in State 2. I ended up getting a nice refund from State 1 on taxes I paid after my move, and owing a lot to State 2.

If you really can't get someone from the tax office on the phone, my next best advice would be to use free file online software. If you put all of your information into TurboTax or TaxAct or any of the free software available on the IRS website, it will sort this out for you. You don't even have to file electronically if you don't want to. You can still use the website to check this. The advice you get from such a website will be much more reliable than advice from strangers on the internet.
posted by decathecting at 6:05 AM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: NYS has some strong domicile rules -- every state is different. I agree with others that getting some official answers to your ? would be best, but from my experience living in NYS and moving in and out of the state a few times in the last 10 years, you do need to file a partial year resident return, but you will be 'creditted' for tax you owe to CT. So as long as the tax rate/requirements are higher or the same in CT, you won't actually owe any money (but you'll have to fill it out to figure).
posted by Tandem Affinity at 6:32 AM on April 15, 2011

Best answer: correction: but you will be 'creditted' for tax you /paid/ to CT

and i don't know if you'd really call them *strong* domicile rules, but there, used to be at least, a pretty lengthy description in the manual about domicile stuff.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 6:34 AM on April 15, 2011

Best answer: I'm seconding the chorus of people who say you need to file part-year returns in both CT and NY. You won't end up paying more than you would have otherwise; you only pay each state on income you made while you lived there. That being said, if you filed as a full-year Connecticut resident your return there is probably in error. I'm guessing that you paid CT more than you had to and NY less than you had to.

TurboTax can handle this; I moved from PA to CA this year and I'm not sure what exactly it did but it asked me lots of questions about when I moved and how much money I made while I lived in each state.

(I am not an accountant. Even if I were, I am not your accountant.)
posted by madcaptenor at 7:07 AM on April 15, 2011

Come on, New York has a Do I Have To File? calculator for this. You really couldn't find that? And yes, unemployment insurance is taxable income in New York State.
posted by The Michael The at 7:07 AM on April 15, 2011

Best answer: Yes. If you live in the state at the end of the tax year, you generally have to file anyway. Receiving a check at the NY address just about cements it.
posted by Citrus at 12:16 PM on April 15, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I did my taxes with Turbo Tax and IIRC, I filed as full year resident for CT. Not sure how I managed to do that despite carefully completing the fields and reviewing. Guess I better get to work! Glad I have an extra couple of days, lol.

And thanks to The Michael The for the backhanded help. Appreciate it.
posted by sundrop at 3:16 PM on April 15, 2011