Arkansas Nonresident Filing Requirements: Income, Form, and Deadline

If you earned any gross income from an Arkansas source during the year, Arkansas nonresident filing requirements say you must file a state return, no matter how small the amount. There is no minimum dollar threshold. A single day of work performed in the state, a rent check from an Arkansas property, or a K-1 from an Arkansas partnership is enough to create the obligation. Nonresidents file on Form AR1000NR and are taxed only on the income connected to Arkansas, with a top marginal rate of 3.9%.

Are You Actually a Nonresident

Arkansas defines a nonresident as someone whose domicile is outside the state, who keeps a place of abode outside Arkansas, and who spends more than six months of the tax year outside its borders.¹ You’re a resident if you’re domiciled in Arkansas, or if you keep a permanent home there and spend more than six months in the state. The statute uses “six months” rather than a fixed day count, so the common 183-day shorthand is only approximate.

Domicile is the heavier factor. You can work in Arkansas without becoming a resident if your permanent home and intent to stay are rooted elsewhere. Keeping your voter registration, driver’s license, and family home in another state supports nonresident status. If the Department of Finance and Administration audits your status, the burden falls on you to show your primary residence is somewhere else.

One boundary worth naming: if you moved into or out of Arkansas during the year, you’re a part-year resident, not a nonresident. Part-year residents also file AR1000NR, but income is split. The portion earned while you lived in Arkansas is taxed under resident rules (all income from any source), and the portion earned before you arrived or after you left follows nonresident rules.² Part-year filers often owe more than they expect because their resident-period income sweeps in wages from other states and investment gains a true nonresident would never report.

What Income Arkansas Taxes

Arkansas uses a source-based system for nonresidents. Only income earned within or connected to the state is taxable. The main categories:

Wages and salaries for work physically performed in Arkansas, even if your employer is based elsewhere. If you split time between states, only the portion allocable to days worked in Arkansas counts.³
Profits from a trade, business, or occupation carried on within the state.
Rental income, crop income, timber sales, mineral royalties, and capital gains from selling Arkansas real estate.³
Your share of income from an Arkansas-based partnership, S corporation, or LLC operating in the state. The entity must withhold Arkansas income tax at the highest individual rate on your share before distributing it.⁴
Trust or estate income, but only when it comes from Arkansas real property, tangible personal property in the state, or an unincorporated Arkansas business.³

What Arkansas leaves alone can matter as much as what it taxes. Income from intangible personal property located in Arkansas, such as interest on a savings account at an Arkansas bank, is not subject to Arkansas income tax for nonresidents.³ Dividends, interest, and similar investment income generally stay outside Arkansas’s reach unless tied to a business operating in the state.

Remote Work for an Arkansas Employer

If you work remotely for an Arkansas employer from your home in another state, Arkansas generally will not tax that income. The state does not use the “convenience of the employer” test that some jurisdictions apply. A nonresident owes Arkansas tax only on the portion of income allocable to work physically performed inside the state.³

If your employer withheld Arkansas taxes anyway, you still have to file to get them back. The AR1000NR instructions require a statement from your employer confirming that no work was completed inside the state before Arkansas will refund those withholdings.² Getting that letter in hand before you file saves back-and-forth later.

How Your Tax Is Calculated

Arkansas prorates. You first calculate tax as though all of your income from every source were taxable in Arkansas, then multiply that amount by the ratio of Arkansas-source income to total income.² The point of this method is to tax you at the marginal rate matching your overall income, not at artificially low brackets. If you earn $120,000 total with $30,000 from Arkansas, the tax is computed on the full $120,000 first, then prorated down to the $30,000 share.

For tax year 2025, the rates for net income of $92,300 or less are: 0% on the first $5,499; 2% on $5,500 to $10,899; 3% on $10,900 to $15,599; 3.4% on $15,600 to $25,699; and 3.9% on $25,700 to $92,300. Above $92,300, the schedule is 2% on the first $4,600 and 3.9% on everything above $4,601. The standard deduction is $2,470 per taxpayer, or $4,940 for married couples filing jointly.

Because the lowest bracket starts at $5,500 of net income with a 0% rate, many nonresidents with only a few thousand dollars of Arkansas-source income will owe nothing after applying the standard deduction and the brackets. You still have to file the return.²

The Form, Attachments, and Deadline

Form AR1000NR is the nonresident return. It asks you to report all income from all sources in one column, then separately identify the Arkansas-source portion. The proration percentage is calculated on the form.²

Attach pages 1 and 2 of your federal Form 1040. The return will not be processed without them. Staple W-2s, 1099-Rs, and other withholding statements to the front. Include federal Schedule C, Schedule E, or K-1 forms if you have business or rental income.

The filing deadline is April 15, matching the federal date. If you file a federal extension, Arkansas honors it automatically and pushes your state deadline to November 15. You can also request a state-only extension using Form AR1055 by April 15. Either extension gives you more time to file but not more time to pay. Interest and failure-to-pay penalties run from April 15 on any unpaid balance.⁵

Estimated Tax Payments

If you expect to owe more than $1,000 in Arkansas income tax for the year, you must file a Declaration of Estimated Tax and pay quarterly.⁶ Vouchers are due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year.

You must estimate at least 90% of your actual liability. Underestimating triggers a penalty of 10% per year on the shortfall, calculated quarterly. The penalty is computed on the lesser of your current-year or prior-year liability, so paying at least 100% of last year’s Arkansas tax is a safe harbor when income is hard to predict.⁶ Nonresidents with pass-through income often trip this rule, since entity-level withholding may not cover the full liability.

Getting Credit for the Tax in Your Home State

The same dollars of Arkansas-source income could be taxed twice: once by Arkansas, once by your home state on your worldwide income. Relief runs through your home state, not Arkansas. Arkansas offers a credit for taxes paid to other states, but that credit is available only to Arkansas residents and part-year residents. Nonresidents are excluded.⁷

You claim the credit on your home state’s return. Most states allow their residents a credit for income tax paid to another state, dollar for dollar up to the amount of home-state tax on that same income. The practical result is that you pay the higher of the two rates on your Arkansas income, not both. You’ll typically need a copy of your completed AR1000NR to attach to the home-state return; specific requirements vary. If you live in a state with no income tax, there’s nothing to double up on in the first place.

What Happens If You Don’t File

Skipping an Arkansas return when you owe tax gets expensive fast because two penalties stack. The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of the unpaid tax for each month or partial month the return is late. The failure-to-pay penalty adds 1% per month on the balance due. Both run simultaneously, capped at a combined 35% of the tax owed.⁸ Interest accrues on top of that from the original due date.

Filing an extension but not paying avoids the 5% failure-to-file charge, but the 1% monthly failure-to-pay penalty and interest still run from April 15.

Willful evasion is a separate matter. Under Arkansas Code § 26-18-201, willfully attempting to evade or defeat payment of any state tax is a Class C felony, and the same classification applies to anyone who helps a taxpayer do it.⁹ Criminal prosecution is uncommon for simple non-filers, but the DFA shares data with the IRS and other states, so unreported Arkansas income tends to surface during federal audits or home-state cross-checks against employer filings.

1
FindLaw. Arkansas Code Title 26 Taxation 26-51-102
2
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. 2025 AR1000F and AR1000NR Instructions
3
Code of Arkansas Rules. 26 CAR 100-114 – Nonresidents
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 26-51-919 – Pass-Through Entities
5
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Deadlines and Extensions
6
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. 2025 Estimated Tax Declaration Vouchers and Instructions
7
Bureau of Legislative Research. Code of Arkansas Rules – Title 26 Taxation
8
FindLaw. Arkansas Code Title 26 Taxation 26-18-208
9
Justia. Arkansas Code 26-18-201 – Attempt to Evade or Defeat Tax