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File State Taxes in Two States

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EMac58

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NC

Our legal state of residency is NC. My husband works on a ship that cruises the HI islands 8months out of the year. Last year he actually only worked 3 months on the ship that cruised the HI waters. The others months was spent out of the country bringing the new ship to the US. He filled out a form from payroll to see if he had to pay HI taxes. He was able to answer NO to all the questions. Does he still legally have to file in HI as well as NC? Our accountant seems to think so because the ship cruises the HI waters, but he qualified according to the HI form. Very confused about this.:confused:
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? NC

Our legal state of residency is NC. My husband works on a ship that cruises the HI islands 8months out of the year. Last year he actually only worked 3 months on the ship that cruised the HI waters. The others months was spent out of the country bringing the new ship to the US. He filled out a form from payroll to see if he had to pay HI taxes. He was able to answer NO to all the questions. Does he still legally have to file in HI as well as NC? Our accountant seems to think so because the ship cruises the HI waters, but he qualified according to the HI form. Very confused about this.:confused:
Does his W2 reflect any HI income or withholdings? If it does, he WILL have to file an HI return. If it does not, I think that the situation is more of a grey area, and I would want to research it.
 

tranquility

Senior Member
Multi-state and multi-country tax returns are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the answers are easy and sometimes they are hard and sometimes, even with a lot of research, the answers slip away. There are times were taxpayers are left to make a defensible decision where there isn't a clear "answer".

Most multi-jurisdiction questions depend on the specific laws of the jurisdiction(s) rather than on overriding principals. No one, unless they have specific experience with the particular fact situation, can give an *answer* without research--sometimes a great deal. Sorry.

An example of the problem happened just yesterday. We had a trust where the grantor died. The grantor was in state #1, the trust created in state #1, but had property in state #2 and in state #3. On the death, the trustee and beneficiary were in state #4, with a contingent beneficiary in state #5. What result?

Our answer was that we needed to file a resident trust return in state #4 and in state #2, but as non-resident in state #3. State #1 got no return (but would have if the contingent beneficiary would have lived there), nor did state #5. The point is that you have to look at the laws of *each state* to determine the requirements. Same as in your case. Look to HI law, that is where the answer lies.
 

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