NY W2 Box 16 same as Box 1 but I only spent 50% of the time in NY

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 4, 2019
2 replies
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Hello,

I have two W2, one of which is from NY State. It shows on my NY W2 that box 16 is equal to my total federal wages (box 1), even though I only spent half of the year in NY. Hence, roughly 50% of Box 1 was earned in NY.

I spoke to my employer, and they said it's a state requirement that as long as I ever worked in NY in the year, the total state wages for box 16 would show my federal total on box 1 - on the NY W2. In this case, in filling out my W2 info, do I supply what's printed on W2 (hence my total federal wages) despite only a fraction of it was actually earned in NY?

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Best answer by ToddL

Report your W-2 exactly as it was prepared for you.

Yes, what you are seeing is accurate, but NYS (or NYC) is not taxing the income you made before you became a resident.

Your total 2016 pay appears in the NY forms, summaries and interviews because NY uses your entire AGI to calculate your tax on NY income. They do this even if you were a resident of New York for 1 day

It isn't, however, as bad as it appears. They calculate what your New York tax would have been if you earned everything in NY, but then prorate that tax based on how much of your income was earned while a NY resident.

For example, if the NY tax on your entire 2016 income was $10,000 but only 30% was earned as a NY resident, your NY tax would be 30% of $10,000 = 3,000.

Why do they do this? So they can tax your NY income at the highest possible tax rate, based on your entire AGI.

ToddLAnswer

Employee

Report your W-2 exactly as it was prepared for you.

Yes, what you are seeing is accurate, but NYS (or NYC) is not taxing the income you made before you became a resident.

For example, if the NY tax on your entire 2016 income was $10,000 but only 30% was earned as a NY resident, your NY tax would be 30% of $10,000 = 3,000.

Why do they do this? So they can tax your NY income at the highest possible tax rate, based on your entire AGI.

kitsalas

I have the same situation. I tried to enter the same values as my W2, and it ended up showig that I owe New York a lot since it’s calculating state tax for the whole year. I haven’t been working and living in New York for over half the year. What am I missing?

Antic5

I'm in the same circumstances, except that I have NEVER been a resident of NY. I only worked there for a couple weeks. How do I handle this as a non-resident?