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April 12, 2025
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Is Turbo Tax overstating my MA wages

  • April 12, 2025
  • 1 reply
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I work for one company and received a multi-page W-2 -- one for each of the two states I worked in. I am a MA resident but work a small part of each month in our Ohio office. The first W-2 is your typical W-2 where box 1 has my total earnings, it says MA in box 15, and the same amount of money is listed in box 16 as state earnings as the amount in box 1. But on the second W-2 for Ohio, there is no information in boxes 1-6, the only information is in the state section (14-20).

 

I entered all of the W2 info into Turbo Tax, then created a state return for Ohio, my non-resident state and next prepared the MA return. The issue is my MA state return is showing income that is equal to the total of my federal wages plus the Ohio wages, so it appears my Ohio wages are included in the MA return. I was prompted to confirm if the wages transferred to my MA return are correct (which they're not since they include the Ohio earnings). If I select "No" that the MA wages were not transferred correctly, I'm then asked on the next screen to answer "Yes" if I want Turbo Tax to only transfer those wages marked with MA and I think I should but then it says I'll have to file the MA return by mail. 

 

Am I doing this right?  Is there any way to still e-file MA in this example?  And is there any reciprocity agreement between MA and Ohio?  Thank you. 

Best answer by MAK70

Sorry for the delayed reply.  Unfortunately, Massachusetts does have a rule that if the state wages do not match what is on the W2s, you cannot efile the return.  The issue is the reporting to Ohio and then including that amount in the Mass total.  Hopefully Massachusetts will find a better way to report income from two states because this does affect a lot of people.

1 reply

Paul177Author
April 13, 2025

Approximately how long does it usually take for a Turbo Tax expert to reply to a question?  I'm not being snarky...just honestly trying to gauge if I should try and get an answer via another avenue.  Thanks. 

MAK70Answer
April 15, 2025

Sorry for the delayed reply.  Unfortunately, Massachusetts does have a rule that if the state wages do not match what is on the W2s, you cannot efile the return.  The issue is the reporting to Ohio and then including that amount in the Mass total.  Hopefully Massachusetts will find a better way to report income from two states because this does affect a lot of people.