How to File New York IT-203: Nonresident and Part-Year Residents

To file New York Form IT-203, finish your federal return first, confirm whether you are a nonresident or part-year resident, identify your New York source income, and complete the return’s two-column structure that reports your federal income on one side and your New York portion on the other. The return is due April 15, and you file it instead of the standard resident return (IT-201) when you lived outside New York for all or part of the year but earned income connected to the state.

Who Needs to File IT-203

You file IT-203 if you were a nonresident or part-year resident of New York State and your New York adjusted gross income exceeded your New York standard deduction.¹ The thresholds are $8,000 for single filers, $16,050 for married filing jointly, $11,200 for head of household, and $8,000 for married filing separately.² File even below those amounts if New York withheld tax from your pay and you want a refund.

Some filers are steered to a different form. If you were a full-year resident of New York State, New York City, or Yonkers, you file IT-201 instead.³ Married couples with one resident spouse and one nonresident or part-year resident spouse cannot combine onto a single New York return: the resident files IT-201 and the other files IT-203 separately.

Settle Your Residency Status First

Everything else on the return depends on this. A nonresident is someone who was not a New York resident for any part of the year but earned income from New York sources, such as wages for work performed in the state or rent from New York property.⁴ A part-year resident met the residency definition for only part of the year, typically because of a move in or out of the state. During the resident portion, all income from any source is taxable to New York; during the nonresident portion, only New York source income is.

Domicile and the 184-Day Rule

New York uses two independent residency tests. The first is domicile: if your permanent primary home, the place you intend to return to, is in New York, you are a resident.⁵ Changing domicile requires “clear and convincing evidence” that you abandoned New York and moved the center of your life elsewhere. Registering to vote in another state or signing a domicile declaration is not enough on its own. The Department of Taxation and Finance weighs where your belongings, family, religious ties, and social ties are.

The second test is statutory residency. Even if you are domiciled elsewhere, you are treated as a New York resident if you maintain a permanent place of abode in the state for substantially all of the year and spend 184 or more days there.⁴ Any part of a day counts as a full day. Trigger statutory residency and you file IT-201 as a full-year resident, not IT-203. If you split time between New York and somewhere else, keep a day-by-day log.

What Counts as New York Source Income

For nonresidents, New York source income includes wages for work done in the state, income from a business, trade, profession, or occupation carried on in the state, income from real or tangible personal property located in New York, gambling winnings over $5,000 from New York wagering, and partnership, S corporation, or estate and trust income to the extent it flows from New York sources.⁶

The Convenience of the Employer Rule

Remote workers get caught by this one more than anything else. If your assigned office is in New York but you work from home in another state, New York treats your telecommuting days as New York workdays, and your wages stay subject to New York tax unless your employer has set up a bona fide office at your remote location.⁵

The question is whether you work remotely for your own convenience or because the employer genuinely needs you at that location. The burden to prove an exception falls on you.⁷ The bona fide employer office exception requires either a primary factor (the home office is near specialized facilities the employer cannot replicate) or a qualifying mix of secondary factors, which can include that the employer requires the arrangement, that you regularly meet clients at the home office, or that the employer does not provide you with designated space at its own location. If you telecommute from outside New York, work through this test before you start allocating wages.

Working Through the Form

Finish your federal return before you touch IT-203. New York starts from federal adjusted gross income, and the numbers must match line for line.³

The Two-Column Structure

The income section of IT-203 runs in two parallel columns. The Federal Amount column repeats every income and adjustment figure from your federal return. The New York State Amount column lists only the portion connected to New York. Nonresidents enter only New York source income on the right. Part-year residents enter New York source income for the nonresident portion plus all income from any source during the resident portion.³ This split drives the whole return.

Allocating Wages When You Work Inside and Outside New York

The state wages box on your W-2 may not break out the right amount. New York offers specific allocation methods depending on how you earn:

Wages not tied to business volume: complete Schedule A of Form IT-203-B, which uses a days-worked-in versus days-worked-out-of-New York calculation.
Commission or volume-based pay: divide volume transacted in New York by total volume everywhere, apply that percentage to your income, and attach a schedule showing the math.
Stock options, restricted stock, or termination pay: use Form IT-203-F to allocate the New York portion.

Remember that convenience-of-the-employer days count as New York workdays in the days-in versus days-out ratio, which raises the New York share of your wages.³

How the Tax Is Calculated

New York does not apply a tax rate directly to your New York income. It calculates a base tax on your full federal income as if you were a full-year resident, then multiplies that base tax by a fraction: New York source income over total federal income.³

The practical effect is that your New York income gets taxed at the bracket your total income would land in. A nonresident with $200,000 of total income and $40,000 of New York income does not pay at the rate a $40,000 earner would. The rate is set by the $200,000 figure and applied to the $40,000. This surprises filers who expect lower-bracket treatment on a modest New York figure. Confirm that the federal AGI on line 19 of IT-203 matches your federal return exactly; a mismatch delays processing.

Deductions

After the income section, choose between the New York standard deduction and itemizing. The standard deduction amounts are:

Single: $8,000
Married filing jointly or qualifying surviving spouse: $16,050
Head of household: $11,200
Married filing separately: $8,000
Dependent claimed by another taxpayer: $3,100²

If your deductible expenses exceed the standard amount, itemize using Form IT-196. New York itemized deductions follow their own rules and may differ from your federal ones. Keep the supporting records for at least three years after filing.

The Resident Credit for Part-Year Filers

Part-year residents often get taxed on the same income twice: once by New York during the resident portion of the year and once by another state that sourced the income. New York offsets this with a credit for income tax paid to the other state, claimed on Form IT-112-R.⁸

The credit is capped at the New York tax attributable to income that was both sourced to and actually taxed by the other jurisdiction during your resident period. File a separate IT-112-R for each state or locality that taxed you. The credit also covers income taxes paid to political subdivisions of other states, such as cities or counties with their own income tax.⁸ If the tax was paid to a Canadian province, use Form IT-112-C.

Nonresidents generally do not claim this credit on their New York return. They usually claim a credit on their home state return for the tax paid to New York, so check your home state’s rules.

Estimated Tax Payments During the Year

If your withholding and credits will not cover your New York liability, you need to make quarterly estimated payments on Form IT-2105. The trigger is $300: if you expect to owe at least $300 in state, city, or Yonkers tax after withholding and credits, you should be paying estimates.⁹ This hits nonresidents with self-employment, rental, or investment income from New York where no employer is withholding.

Each quarterly payment should equal at least 25% of either 90% of your current year’s tax or 100% of the prior year’s tax, whichever is less. Nonresidents selling New York real property have an additional obligation under Forms IT-2663 and IT-2664, which require estimated payments at the time of sale.

Deadlines, Extensions, and E-Filing

IT-203 is due April 15 for calendar-year filers. If you need more time, file Form IT-370 by that date for an automatic six-month extension to October 15.¹⁰ An extension to file is not an extension to pay. Include full payment of your estimated balance with IT-370 or you face a late payment penalty. A copy of your federal extension will not be accepted in place of IT-370.

E-filing is faster and produces fewer errors. New York’s Free File program covers taxpayers whose federal AGI is $89,000 or less, providing software for state and federal returns at no cost.¹¹ Commercial software and most tax professionals can also e-file IT-203. Paper returns take significantly longer, and if you mail one the correct address depends on whether you are enclosing a payment.

Penalties for Filing or Paying Late

Late filing and late payment are separate penalties, and they can apply at once.

Late filing: 5% of unpaid tax per month or partial month, capped at 25%. If the return is more than 60 days late, the minimum penalty is the lesser of $100 or the total due.¹²
Late payment: 0.5% of unpaid tax per month or partial month, also capped at 25%.¹⁰
Interest: accrues on any unpaid balance from the original due date, compounded daily at a rate set quarterly.

They stack. File three months late with an unpaid balance and you can face 15% in late filing penalties, 1.5% in late payment penalties, and interest on top. Willfully providing false information on a return is a criminal offense that can bring fines and jail time.¹³

New York City and Yonkers Obligations

Filing IT-203 does not close out everything. Nonresidents who earn wages in Yonkers owe a 0.5% nonresident earnings tax, reported on Form Y-203 submitted with your IT-203.¹⁴ An IT-370 state extension automatically extends the Yonkers deadline too.¹⁰

New York City taxes its residents, not nonresidents who merely work in the city. Nonresidents working in NYC owe no city income tax on wages. Part-year residents who lived in the city for part of the year do owe city tax for that period and report it on IT-203. Anyone who was a full-year NYC resident at any point files IT-201 instead. City tax is a real add-on, with rates running roughly 3% to nearly 4% depending on income, so build it into your estimate if you were a part-year city resident.

1
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Filing Information for New York State Nonresidents
2
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. 2025 Instructions for Form IT-203, Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return
3
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Instructions for Form IT-203 Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return
4
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Income Tax Definitions
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New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Frequently Asked Questions About Filing Requirements, Residency, and Telecommuting for New York State Personal Income Tax
6
New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 631 – New York Source Income of a Nonresident Individual
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New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. TSB-M-06(5)I – New York Tax Treatment of Nonresidents and Part-Year Residents
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New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Instructions for Form IT-112-R, New York State Resident Credit
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New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Instructions for Form IT-2105 Estimated Income Tax Payment Voucher for Individuals
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New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Instructions for Form IT-370 Application for Automatic Six-Month Extension of Time to File for Individuals
11
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. E-File Options for Personal Income Tax
12
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Interest and Penalties
13
New York State Senate. New York Tax Law 1801 – Tax Fraud Acts
14
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Form Y-203 Yonkers Nonresident Earnings Tax Return