Lease ended in Nolita, moved to Jersey City on Aug 1. Updated HR address right away, changed my W-4 state stuff to NJ. My paycheck still shows NYC income tax withheld every period through Dec. Payroll told me since I'm in the Manhattan office three days a week, they have to keep withholding. That sounds off to me—NYC income tax is for residents, no? How do I get the city part back? Do I just file part-year resident and claim it, or do I need them to fix the W-2 first?

Payroll is wrong. NYC doesn't have a commuter tax, so after you moved you're not on the hook for city income tax even if you physically work in Manhattan. State withholding is different; NYS will still take their cut. For the city piece, you'll want to file as a part-year NYC resident for the year. If the W-2 still shows NYC wages for the whole year, you can still allocate on the return, but it's cleaner if they fix the W-2. Keep your JC lease, utility bills, maybe a bank statement showing the address. If payroll won't fix, don't wait on them—file with the allocation and attach an explanation.

I'd push payroll one more time before filing. Ask them to correct only the NYC box for the periods after Aug 1. They may have your work location as NYC in their system, so it's auto-withholding. Your HR probably won't touch it after the year closes. If they won't issue a W-2C, file IT-203 + IT-360.1 as part-year and only claim NYC wages for Jan-Jul. Did they ever switch your state withholding to NJ, or are you about to owe NJ a fat payment because they kept NY state instead? That's a whole other mess.

Had this exact thing with Hoboken two years ago. Payroll kept the NYC line for two extra cycles, then fixed it after I submitted a new IT-2104 with my JC address. Old W-2 still had extra city withholding, so I filed the part-year forms and got it back as a refund. Took a while but no notice. Agree with Flatbush_Fi—check the state withholding too, because if they didn't switch state, you'll owe NJ and have a NY state refund, basically a zero-interest loan to NY. Not the end of the world but annoying.

Thanks all. Yeah HR closed the ticket saying 'city work location requires city tax.' I'm not going to fight that anymore. State withholding did switch to NJ in August, so at least that's right. I'll file IT-203 / IT-360.1 with the JC lease and utility bill and only include NYC wages for Jan-Jul. If anyone has a tax prep recommendation that handles part-year NYC without charging an arm and a leg, let me know. Otherwise I may just do it myself and keep notes.