How to get refund of state taxes withheld for military spouse working in NJ but chooses PA as military state of residence

Forum|Forum|16 days ago
June 16, 2026
1 reply
25 views

Taxpayer and spouse currently live in NJ. Taxpayer is military and began service in PA. Uses PA as his designated home state. Met spouse in PA. Moved to NJ for spouse’s new employment. Spouse only had NJ tax withheld. PA & NJ are tax reciprocal states. What boxes need to be checked in NJ return to show no income or tax in order to get withholding refunded? All income needs to be reported on PA return. I’m assuming that I file a NJ non-resident because of PA military residence. How do I get NJ to exclude both incomes so that no tax is due and all withholding is refunded? I also assume that there is no way that the refund can be applied to PA. That would be total wishful thinking.

Thank you Community!

Military Spouse

Accountant-Man

Level 13

On the NJ 1040NR, go to the wages line and drill down to the worksheet. Check the boxes to show non taxable to NJ. The wages and tax withheld must be entered on the W2 input.

In PS, in order to get wages correct in both PA and NJ, you MUST enter wages twice on the W2 input. IE, enter total wages on two state lines. For PA w/h, enter zero. For NJ, enter amount actually w/h.

On both return programs you MUST correct the wages and make at least one as non taxable. Always enter Non resident return first. Go to NJ, check box for 1040NR, then go to wage line. Drill down to worksheet and check boxes for both to be non taxable. The NJ w/h should be refunded.

PA also double counts both state wage lines, so then go to PA wage worksheet and click the line marked as NJ as non taxable. The only one left should be the PA wages. Since there were zero PA w/h, you will owe PA 3.07% of those wages.

** I'm still a champion... of the world! Even without The Lounge.

Sign up

Login with SSO

Let's get you signed in

Login with SSO

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded