I received two w-2s, when I was supposed to only receive 1 for month of march pay. Do I have any out

Tedhim

Hi everyone, seeking for tax advice. I recently received two W-2s (one for CA and one for NY), but in reality I should only receive a NY W-2. The CA represents one of the months only, the rest of the months in the year are part of my NY W-2. My employer made a mistake thinking I still had my address in CA, but I was already in NY that month. I have requested for a new W-2 where it's just new york.

When I checked my CA W-2, my state income tax was barely anything. And my NY w-2 also had the entire amount I've earned for the year. I'm assuming this means that I was taxed both for CA and NY at that time.

Now that the tax payment deadline is approaching, I'm wondering if there's any tax payments I need to make. From my understanding, since NY taxes were already paid for that one month I received a CA W-2, then I should not need to pay any taxes but I'd like to make sure.

JanaA

Hello Tedhim! This is a situation that comes up when an employer issues W-2s with incorrect state information, and there are a few things to keep in mind as you approach the filing deadline.

Even though the CA W-2 was issued in error, you will generally still need to address both states when you file. Since you were physically in NY during the month your employer reported wages to CA, California would typically only tax income from work actually performed within California. As a nonresident of CA, your CA tax liability on that income may be very small or even zero, but you would still need to file a CA nonresident return (Form 540NR) to report and reconcile that withholding.

For your NY return, NY taxes residents on all income for the year. The good news is that NY allows a credit for taxes paid to another state, so any CA tax you actually owe can be used to offset your NY tax and prevent being taxed twice on the same income. This means your overall tax burden should not be significantly higher than if you had only one W-2.

As for whether you owe additional taxes, that depends on the actual numbers when you run through both returns. It is possible you may owe a small amount to CA, receive a refund from CA, or come out even. The NY credit should take care of most or all of the overlap.

If you are still waiting on the corrected W-2 from your employer, you have a couple of options. You can file an extension to give yourself more time to receive it, or you can file with the current W-2s as they are and amend later once the corrected version arrives. Filing an extension gives you more time to file but does not extend the time to pay, so if you think you may owe, it is worth estimating that now.