Last sept 1st I moved into an apartment in NYC (I own). I have always worked in nyc. My tax preparer (who is in calif, long story) informed me last night that the ny & nj tax returns he efiled in April did not go through. I owe ny state $600 and I am due a refund from NJ for $800. In the past ny & nj states figured it out between themselves and I got a refund. This is the first time I've owed. He has no paperwork for nyc city taxes. Can anyone let me know what the current laws are?

It's a bit hard to understand what the issues are here, but in summary: you moved to NYC from NJ in September, so you for 2006 you should have filed an NJ part-year resident return (for Jan - Sep), and an NY State non-resident for Jan - Sep and part-year resident resident return fro Sep - Dec, which would have included the calculations for NY City part-year resident for that time as well. Does that make sense? I don't understand why the e-file "did not go through" - did your tax-preparer explain that? Now, regarding the money he says you owe - you are expecting that somehow NJ would pay NY using your refund from NJ to cover what you owe to NY and NYC? Sorry, but I've never heard of such a thing -please clarify. Finally, the NYC portion of your taxes should have been calculated as part of the NYS return - when your preparer says he has "no paperwork" for NYC that sounds like he doesn't understand the forms. No offense, but I suggest that you talk with a preparer from NY who knows how to handle this - sounds like the California preparer is out to lunch with respect to filing in NY.

Ebaines has worked it out fine.