<p>S2 attends college in Wisconsin and has a part time job. We live in Minnesota where he worked during the summer. (he made $8500 so he has to file)</p>
<p>This results in W2 forms from 2 different states. For federal taxes they need to be combined, but how do we handle the state returns? If we only include the W2 for the individual state then it gets confusing when the state return asks you to enter the wages, tips from line X of the federal form. Entering only the info for that state would mean excluding wages???</p>
<p>There is probably a simple answer, but it is definitely escaping me!</p>
<p>I do my daughter’s taxes for two states. You report the whole income to both states. Your home state will be a regular return, the school state is nonresident. Yes, it stinks. If my daughter only filed in her school state she would pay much less tax becuase our state taxes her to the hilt.</p>
<p>Son had income from three states several years ago. The other two states had apportionment rules for multi-state income. I used software to make life easier.</p>
<p>This is why I use turbo tax. Unfortunately I already have to buy multiple state returns for myself. Fortunately, most of my kids earn income in the same states.</p>
<p>For nonresidents, Wisconsin taxes only that portion of income earned in Wisconsin. There are actually two columns on the nonresident income tax form, one where you report all income as reported for federal tax purposes, and one where you show income from Wisconsin sources. It’s very likely your son had Wisconsin income taxes withheld from his Wisconsin paychecks, and depending on how much was withheld and how much Wisconsin income he had, he may get a refund. I believe Wisconsin only needs to see documentation of Wisconsin withholding (i.e., W-2s from Wisconsin sources).</p>
<p>As a Minnesota resident, he’ll be taxed by Minnesota on all income from whatever source, in-state or out-of-state, but I believe there’s a credit for taxes paid to Wisconsin. If so, it probably makes sense to fill out the Wisconsin form first. For the Minnesota resident income tax form, you’d need to submit documentation of all income (i.e., all W-2s).</p>
<p>It’s definitely easier, but more costly, to do this with TurboTax.</p>
<p>your daughter needs to file Wisconsin tax return as non-resident, and Minnesota tax return as a resident. She will get credit for the taxes she paid in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>We had to do this with our kids. One year one kid had three, no four different states. It was worth EVERY penny to use tax prep software. Do the federal return first. Then the one for the state of residence. Then the other one(s). The correct info will automatically be entered. Worth EVERY penny.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the guidance. He was doing the “free” Turbo tax for his federal form, but he came to a halt when they said the state form would require a fee. I’ll take a peek at it.</p>
<p>No, there is a turbo tax which includes one state which I think is $40. Any other states are an additional $40, I think. It also costs more money to file electronically. Even though my state says they prefer I efile until they stop charging I will mail it in.</p>
<p>I feel your pain, one year we lived in two states, D went to school in another and worked in yet another state.</p>
<p>I recalled there’s a IRS affiliated program which’ll enable you to use and file free using turbotax if your income falls below a certain amount. </p>
<p>Your son should be eligible for this service.</p>
<p>Some college friends who had a hard fall after the dot-com bust were eligible for it back in the early '00s.</p>
<p>Yes, you can freefile your federal income taxes if below a certain income. HOWEVER, not every state participates in freefile for state returns…ours does NOT (a rip off).</p>
<p>Yes, we have also ponied up for the extra Turbotax states for D1. It costs, but it has taken some of the worry about whether we are doing it right.</p>
<p>You (or your kid) can print out the WI forms from their state website. It’s a pain in the butt to fill out since it asks for all earned income from all states lived/worked in, but not all that difficult. My kid first lived here in PA and worked summers in WI, and then moved to WI and had part-year income from here.</p>
That would be if you buy the program. But if you use the freefile link on the IRS website, you can get it for free. If your state participates, you can also file it for free, but if it doesn’t, you can print out the state return and mail it in.</p>
<p>The one year that our son had income in three states, I found free tax websites where the state return was free to do the return but they charged for filing it or printing it. MA has an efile program but it didn’t handle non-resident returns back then - I don’t know whether it handles it today. That was before I started using TurboTax.</p>
<p>I bought TurboTax Premier which is about $70 or $80 and it includes one state return which we use for our son. I can fill out our state return by hand. If he had income from another state, we’d probably get the additional state (he’d pay for it of course). Or he could struggle through the return himself.</p>
<p>My friends and I were in MA and had no issues printing out Federal and state returns for free for filing. </p>
<p>I knew about it as I helped walk them through the website and delivered their completed returns along with mine to the IRS/MA state tax dropoff points in the Government Center area because it was a short walk from my workplace then. </p>
<p>Bonus points, had the IRS and MA state tax admins stamp duplicate copies of said tax returns so we had proof we filed on that date and time.</p>
<p>E-file was still in beta at the time. Basically, what most people did was go online to that free site, complete the Federal and state returns, printed them out, and them either mail them or in the case of myself and said friends, printed two copies for each person and filed one set while having the other set stamped as proof of receipt.</p>