Out of State Student in NY

[indyscott]

My daughter, an Indiana resident, is a fulltime student in NY and had NY wages reported on her w2. I don't need to file a NY return, do I? There was no withholding.

Also, I'm not sure why but her college/employer didn't report her wages as SS or Med wages. Is there a valid reason for that?

[greggea]

There is a FICA exemption available for students that work for that educational institution. That may be the reason there is no withholding. Gregg

[indyscott]

I wasn't aware of that. I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever get the job of doing payroll for a college.

[Don in Upstate NY]

As far as New York, she must file a non-resident return (IT-203) if her Federal AGI is greater than her NY standard deduction. (This is not strictly true in all cases, but close enough.) If she is your dependent, her NY standard deduction is only $3,000. If she's on her own, it's $7,500.

NY is one of those states that first calculates the tax assuming that all the earnings came from NY, and then takes the proportion of that tax corresponding to the proportion of the total income that was NY sourced. With such a low standard deduction for dependents, many students find that the owe NY tax even if they have no federal filing requirement.