Questioning why big difference

Question

Hello me and husband had some issues and long story short I am trying to catch on a few years of missed filing..Intially I filed 2023 back at end of December, sent off and have even received our state refund for the state we live in (as my husband works in a different state so we always have federal and 2 states to file) I am now trying to complete 2022 ( i know it's the year before I already did. However, I had to get 2023 done because my oldest son needed it for his fasfa) I completed the federal part and its roughly around ball-park of what or end result was for 2023 however when i am doing our 2 states I completed the residency state and it prompts up to do any states that you worked in if different..which pk I know however my residency state is showing a huge and I mean a huge difference (from around $800 something return for 2023 to projected around $4-5,000..this is kind of alarming to me the difference with no huge wage differences. I did realize as I was thinking about it as I'm answering the questions for the. Residency state and also therefore the other working state. It seems that the layout or questions. Some of them are different than want I remember when doing the 2023 year (which was only about a month ago) how do I know that 2022 answers or areas are correctly done? Or how can I get clarification on a coupke areas of this that I feel are iffy?

JohnV · Answer

When you are living in one state and working in another state, you must file the nonresident state tax return first, so that you can allocate income and see how much taxes you owe to the nonresident state.

You would then fill out the resident state tax return, where all income will flow to the resident state and taxed by the resident state.

However, you can take a credit for the taxes that you already paid to the nonresident state on the resident state tax return The credit means you only paid taxes to the nonresident state where you are earning income.

From what you have written, you only started on your resident state tax return. You should start with the nonresident state tax return, and then the resident state tax return. If you want us to discuss your tax returns specifically, you can chat with us when log into your account.

hrmbassociate · Answer

That big jump is scary but it’s usually a multi-state credit or income allocation thing, not a mistake. State forms change by year, so 2022 won’t look exactly like 2023. I’d double-check that each W-2 is tied to the correct state and that the “taxes paid to another state” credit isn’t being overstated. If it still feels off, run the same numbers through another tax program just to compare, that’s often the fastest way to confirm whether it’s legit or a glitch.