[mizsard23]

Hi there -

I lived in NJ for 9 months of the year in 2009 (1/1/09-10/1/09). Moved to NYC 10/2/09 and was the there for the remainder of the year (still currently residing in NYC). Worked in NYC for entire year 2009. How should I be filing each of my state returns? NJ - resident or part year resident? NY - part-year resident or non-resident? Filing Single, only the 1 source of wages, from NYC.

Follow up question, I am using H&R Block @ Home Deluxe tax software to do my returns and do not know how I should allocate my income (wages, interest received, etc) between each state. 100% of the amounts to the state of NY and taking a credit for NJ? Splitting 3/4 of the amounts and applying to NJ, with 1/4 to NY? Should I be using allocation schedule the tax software offers?

Hope this makes sense - many thanks in advance for any replies!

Best,
Sarah

[ebaines]

NJ: file as part year resident.
NY State: file as part-year resident (Form IT-203 covers both your time as a non-resident of NY and the part of the year you lived in NY).

Split your wages between states as best you can - based on your salary and date of your move. For allocating interest you can either (a) check your bank statements and maketeh split based on actual amounts credited to your acount by month, or (b) if you don't have those details just split the entire amount for the year by the percentage of time you lived in each state. If you have capital gains base the split on the date of sale of each asset. When doing the NJ tax return you will also have to document taxes paid to NY on the income you earned while a NJ resident, so that you get the appropriate crdit for taxes paid to oter jurisdictions.

I have no experience with H&R Block's software - sorry - but hopefully it will allow you to make the allocation in a way that makes sense to you, and that you can "defend" if need be to either the NJ or NY tax authorities.

[mizsard23]

Thank you Ebaines. Makes sense but something's not panning out in the software :(... I'm currently seeing a huge refund equivalent to my federal refund for the state of New York when I input my info; which is clearly not right... not sure where my error is. I should be claiming a credit in my NY refund or my NJ refund?

Thank you :-)
Sarah

[ebaines]

You claim a credit on your NJ return for taxes paid to NY while you were a NJ resident.

Is the software showing that you were a part-year resident of NY ,but that you worked in NY all year?