St. Louis Form E-1R is the refund claim non-residents use to recover the city’s 1% earnings tax on wages earned for days they actually worked outside city limits. You fill it out using your W-2 figures and a day count, run a five-line calculation on the back, have your employer sign to verify the days, and mail the signed form to the Collector of Revenue by April 15. There is no e-file option. The fillable PDF is available on the Collector of Revenue’s website.1City of St. Louis. E-1R Form (Fillable)
Who Can Claim the Refund
If you don’t live in St. Louis but your employer withheld the 1% earnings tax on your full wages, you can claim back the portion tied to whole days worked somewhere other than the city.2City of St. Louis. Earnings Tax Department This typically covers employees who split time between a city office and a home office, a satellite location, or client sites in another jurisdiction.
One rule drives everything else on the form: only whole days outside the city count. If any part of a workday is spent inside St. Louis city limits, the entire day is a city day.3City of St. Louis. Individual Earnings Tax Information A morning meeting downtown followed by an afternoon at your kitchen table is a city day. Overstating out-of-city time is the fastest way to get a claim rejected.
What to Gather Before You Open the Form
- Your W-2 for the tax year, showing gross wages and the exact St. Louis earnings tax withheld.
- Your employer’s name, business address, and Federal Employer Identification Number as printed on the W-2.
- Your total work days for the year (including vacation, sick days, and holidays) and the whole days you worked outside the city. A standard full-time work year is 260 days.
- The physical address where you did the out-of-city work, usually your home address if you telecommuted.
- A supervisor or manager who can confirm your day count and sign the form, plus a company phone number for that person.
If more than one employer withheld St. Louis earnings tax during the year, each needs its own E-1R. The form is built around a single W-2.
Filling Out the Form
The top section asks for your name, Social Security number, mailing address, and the tax year. Below that, enter your employer’s name, address, FEIN, and the wage and withholding figures straight from the W-2.
The Five-Line Non-Residency Calculation
The back of the form holds the math that produces your refund:4Washington University Financial Services. Tax Withholdings
- Line 1: total days worked during the year, including vacation, sick, and holidays. A full-time employee who worked the whole year uses 260.
- Line 2: whole days worked outside St. Louis. Any day with time inside city limits does not count here.
- Line 3: Line 2 divided by Line 1. This is the share of your year spent outside the city.
- Line 4: gross wages from the W-2.
- Line 5: Line 4 multiplied by Line 3. This is the income that should not have been taxed by St. Louis.
Your refund is 1% of Line 5. If you earned $70,000 and spent 180 of 260 days outside the city, Line 3 is roughly 69.2%, Line 5 is about $48,462, and the refund is about $485.
Getting the Employer to Sign
This is the step that stops most claims. The employer must certify both your total work days and your whole days worked outside the city.5City of St. Louis. Earnings Tax Forms and Documents A supervisor or manager prints their name, signs, lists their title, dates the form, and provides a company phone number. You sign too. The city originally required wet signatures but now accepts electronic signatures from platforms like DocuSign.4Washington University Financial Services. Tax Withholdings The Collector of Revenue will not process the form without the employer section completed, so do not plan to send it in and supply that part later.
Where and When to Send It
There is no electronic submission. Print the completed PDF, collect the signatures, and mail the form to the Office of the Collector of Revenue at 1200 Market Street, Room 410, St. Louis, MO 63103.6St. Louis Collector of Revenue. Make a Payment to the Collector of Revenue
The filing deadline is April 15 of the year after the tax year you’re claiming, and the city does not grant extensions on earnings tax filings.7City of St. Louis. File Individual Earnings Taxes If you miss April 15, you still have a short window: the statute of limitations on refund requests is one year from the original due date of the return.3City of St. Louis. Individual Earnings Tax Information After that, the city has no obligation to process the claim. For tax year 2025, the outside deadline is April 15, 2027.
After You File
The department checks your figures against employer records. If the day counts don’t match, you’ll get a letter asking for clarification; an unanswered inquiry can result in denial. Refund checks go to the mailing address on the form. Processing times aren’t published, so expect several weeks, longer during spring. For status questions, the Earnings Tax Department is at 314-622-4101 or EarningsTaxCOR@stlouis-mo.gov.8PayIt. Make a St. Louis Earnings Tax Payment
One tax note for next year. If you itemized on your federal return and deducted the St. Louis earnings tax you paid, the refund generally has to be reported as income the year you receive it under the tax benefit rule; if you took the standard deduction, it isn’t federally taxable.9Internal Revenue Service. Taxable Refunds, Credits or Offsets of State or Local Income Taxes On your Missouri return, a refund included in federal adjusted gross income can be subtracted on Form MO-A so Missouri doesn’t tax it a second time.10Missouri Department of Revenue. MO-A Individual Income Tax Adjustments