I am a college student in MA but considered a NYS resident. Last year all my income was in MA. Do I have to file a NYS return even if I have no NYS income?

If you are a NY resident but eaned income in MA then you must file a return in NY as well as MA. It works like this:

1. First complete a non-resident MA tax return, where you report your income earned in MA. You will pay MA income tax on this.

2. Then complete a resident NY State tax return, on which you report all income for the year, including the MA income. You calculate a preliminaryNY tax based on that total income, but then take a credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions (namely MA), which will have the effect of making your final NY tax bill essentially zero. If you owe a little buit to NY it would be because NY's tax rates are a bit higher than MA's, so you would have to pay the difference to NY.