Remote work, a second home, online sales or out-of-state clients can quietly create a tax filing obligation in another state. This free tool screens your situation for likely multi-state ("nexus") exposure.
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
This tool is for general information only and is not tax advice. Results depend on details it does not capture - confirm with your CPA before acting.
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Distinguish domicile (the one permanent home you intend to return to) from statutory residency (many states also tax you as a resident if you keep a permanent place of abode there and spend enough days in the state). A part-year return splits the year at your move date and taxes each state on the income earned while you were a resident. The common trap is assuming domicile changes the day you physically move - it changes only when you establish a new permanent home and abandon the old one, so keep move dates, license and voter-registration changes, and lease or closing documents.
Each state sets its own residency and filing rules.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
Wages are generally sourced to the state where the work is physically performed, and business income is sourced under each state's apportionment rules, regardless of where you now live. Weigh pay stubs, the state entries in Form W-2 boxes 15 through 17, and employer work-location records to see how much income each state can claim. A frequent error is assuming a move ends the former state's claim - income from former-state sources, or from work performed there, can remain taxable to that state.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
A state may tax a nonresident on income sourced within its borders - wages for work performed there, rent from in-state property, or in-state business income - and your home state then allows a credit for the tax paid to the other state. Weigh where the work was performed, where property is located, and any state withholding shown on your forms. The trap is double counting: report the income to both states but claim the resident credit at home so the same dollars are not taxed twice.
You may need a nonresident or part-year return in another state.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
Check boxes 15 through 17 of each Form W-2 and the state boxes on Forms 1099 for a state code, state wages, and state tax withheld. That withholding must be reconciled on a return for that state - it may produce a refund or, if under-withheld, a balance due. A common misapplication is treating withholding as the final tax; the actual liability is computed on the nonresident return, and withholding is only a prepayment credited against it.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
Two separate nexus tests apply to a business selling across state lines: income or franchise tax nexus, which for tangible-goods sellers may be shielded by P.L. 86-272 when activity is limited to soliciting orders approved and shipped from outside the state; and sales or use tax nexus, which after Wayfair turns on an economic threshold rather than physical presence. Weigh sales by state, the activities performed in each state, and whether you sell services or digital goods (which P.L. 86-272 does not protect). The trap is relying on P.L. 86-272 while performing non-solicitation activities in the state or selling non-tangible products.
Remote sales can create filing duties in multiple states.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
Collect every Form W-2 and Form 1099 that shows a state entry, plus a record of days worked in each state and any estimated payments made to a state. These substantiate both the nonresident tax owed and the resident credit claimed at home. The common problem is a missing state copy - without the withholding statement the credit is unsupported and the return may be under- or over-stated.
Prepare for a home-state resident return plus one or more nonresident or part-year returns, claiming the resident credit under Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne, 575 U.S. 542 (2015). Gather every out-of-state Form W-2 and Form 1099 before filing so the resident credit and each state's tax can be substantiated under IRC Section 6001.
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
Compare your sales into each state, by revenue and (in many states) by number of transactions, to that state's own economic nexus threshold for the measurement period it specifies. Crossing the threshold triggers a duty to register, collect, and remit sales or use tax prospectively, and sometimes to file income or franchise returns. The trap is applying one national number - each state sets and changes its own threshold and window, so test them state by state.
Register, collect, and remit sales or use tax in each state where the threshold was crossed, per South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018); review income and franchise filings too. No registration appears required yet, but monitor each state's threshold as sales grow, because economic nexus is tested per state and per period under South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018).
Official guidance: Official state tax agency directory
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