TP worked in NJ office during covid, his NY wage allocation

[tax1111]

TP usually goes to NY office to work. But due to covid, he worked in a NJ office of the same employer for 2021. How does that impact his NY wage reporting on his NY nonresident return? Should the days he worked in NJ location be counted as days he worked outside of NY for the purpose of filing IT 203B schedule A? Or these days still are counted as NY working days.

[michaelmars]

depends if you ask NY or NJ tax department.  NY is pretty aggressive going after people that are working temporarily out of the state due to covid.  If the w-2 is showing NY wages there isn't much harm in putting it on the NY return.  The rates between the 2 states isn't that much in the long run.   Your situation though is a bit different since he isn't working out of a NJ shore beach house but out of an other company office.  Could be considered that they transferred him and it should all be NJ.

[Sara EA]

The state allocation is based on where the services were performed, so you have to divide NJ and NY days.  It would be a different story if he worked at home in NJ.  NY has a rule about working at home for the employee's convenience counts as work performed in NY.  Not the case here.