I moved from WV to PA in April 2023, and have income from both states...

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February 6, 2024
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I moved from WV to PA in April 2023 and have income from both states. I am filing part-year residency for both states, and I have income earned in WV while solely a resident of WV, income earned in WV while a WV resident and also as a PA resident, and income earned in PA while solely a PA resident. Under "Any special Pennsylvania W-2 situations?", the box next to "You earned income in another state is checked", but "You were a resident of a reciprocal state and your employer withheld PA income tax." is NOT. Is that correct? (The WV jobs only withheld WV tax and the PA job only withheld PA tax)

Additionally, once I move to the next screen it prompts me to "Prepare W-2 Additional Information Statement - You must send in Forms W-2 with your PA tax return. Be sure to explain any of the circumstances listed on the previous screen." Do I actually have to send in W-2's? Any insight as to how to move forward?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

DianeW777

You are correct to file a part year resident for each state. These two states, Pennsylvania (PA) and West Virginia (WV), are reciprocal states.

Reciprocity:

A reciprocal agreement, also called reciprocity, is an agreement between two states that allows residents of one state to request exemption from tax withholding in the other (reciprocal) state. This can save you the trouble of having to file multiple state returns in the future as full time resident.

You will file the WV return and report only the income earned while you were a resident there. You will include all WV state tax withheld by your employer as indicated on your W-2. (if necessary you can put the correct wages for each state in the federal W-2 entry).
You will file the PA return and report only the income earned while you were a resident of PA. Since your employer in WV did not hold PA tax while you were a PA resident you should still answer Yes to the question '...our employer withheld PA income tax." Is that correct?' This keeps the understanding clear in TurboTax even if there is no PA withholding. We want to be sure the reciprocal status is understood.
Do not mail your W-2s in to PA, it's unlikely they will request them but if they do, you can always mail them later.
If you need to write a statement, simply put you can write 'Reciprocity'.

Please update here if you have any additional questions.

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jwarnerstepAuthor

Thank you for the excellent information! However, I do have additional questions....when completing the PA state filing docs, the page that says "Any special Pennsylvania W-2 situations?", there are 2 options that apply, "You earned income in another state." and "You were a resident of PA working in another state or country and your employer did not withhold PA income tax.". Do I select both of these? There is also a third option that states "You were a resident of a reciprocal state and your employer withheld PA income tax." but I don't believe this applies since while I was a resident of PA and had employment in WV, they did not withhold PA tax. If I select the first two, it then prompts me to prepare and send w-2's, and also add a statement if I choose, but I have noted what you mentioned before. Thank you again for the insight!

DMarkM1

No, don't check any of those. Since your two states are reciprocity states all your income/withholding was attributed to/done by the resident states.

The first two options are for non-reciprocal states and therefore do not apply. The third option, would be if you were resident in WV, a reciprocal state, all year (and never was a PA resident) and PA taxes were withheld. This does not apply since at some point you were resident of PA and Pa taxes were correctly withheld.

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