Choosing a CPA when you live and work in different states

This page is about choosing a CPA when your home and your job are in different states. It does not decide which state may tax your wages. That answer is in each state's own instructions, and two states can publish different tests. A CPA who files only a federal return has not answered the question this page is about.

The general hiring sequence is still how to find and choose a CPA. The questions that belong in any first meeting are in questions to ask a CPA. Use this page for the extra facts a two-state wage year adds.

The IRS calls Form W-2 the Wage and Tax Statement on its About Form W-2 page. The Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 label Box 15 as the state and the employer's state ID number, and they set aside Boxes 16 through 19 for further state information. Read every state line on the copy you received. A state printed on the form is a fact about how the employer reported the year. It is not, by itself, a ruling that you file only there.

Residency rules are state instructions. California's Franchise Tax Board residents page says you are a resident if you are present in California for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, or if you are domiciled in California but outside California for a temporary or transitory purpose. The same page says a resident is taxed on all income regardless of source, and it points to FTB Publication 1031 for more factors. That is one state's page. It is not a national rule for remote work. The state where you live and the state tied to the employer each publish their own instructions. Ask the CPA to name the pages they are using.

• They can name both states before they describe the engagement. One of those states is where you lived. The other is where the employer is based, or where you physically worked, if those are different.
• They have prepared a resident return and a nonresident or part-year return for states like yours, and they say which of those returns are inside this engagement.
• They ask where you lived, for which dates, and where you performed the work. They do not stop at the employer's letterhead.
• They read the state lines on the W-2 before they tell you the scope is simple.
• They will say what they will not prepare. A federal-only practice can still be a fit if they tell you that and you have someone else for the states. Silence is not a division of work.

A directory filter for people who selected multistate work is multistate. Selecting that specialty is not a license check. Confirm the credential on how to verify a CPA license.

• Every Form W-2, including each state line, not only the federal wages.
• The dates you lived in each place, and the dates you physically worked in each place. A calendar is enough.
• The employer's state, and any letter or payroll record that says where the job is assigned.
• Last year's federal return and every state return that was filed.
• Any notice from a state tax agency, and any statement of state tax withheld that is not already on the W-2.

• Which state returns will you sign, and which returns are outside this engagement?
• If I moved during the year, is a part-year return included?
• Which state instructions will you use for where I lived and where I worked?
• Who prepares the federal return, who signs it, and which preparer tax identification number will be on it?
• What would you need later if one of those states writes about the year?

• They say remote workers are taxed only where the company sits, as if that were a national rule, and they cannot point to the instructions for your states.
• They quote a scope before asking where you lived and where you performed the work.
• They will file the federal return and leave every state return to you, without saying that out loud.
• They treat the state named in Box 15 as the only state that can matter.
• They promise the year will be cheaper, or that a second state return will not be needed, before they have read the W-2 and your dates.