Got a W-2 from a three-day commercial shoot I did in Greenpoint last spring. I live in Philadelphia and normally work there. Payroll had NY withholding, I think, but now my tax person says I need to think about NYC income tax too? I figured nonresidents only owe if they actually live here or have an office here. I was just a PA, crashed on a friend's couch, and the shoot was three days at a studio on Eagle Street. Is this a real thing or is the preparer being jumpy?

Real thing. If you're standing in the five boroughs and earning wages, the city wants its cut for those days. It's annoying but the employer probably already reported the NY wages because production payroll is like that. I'd just file and be done, but keep the call sheet if you've still got it.

Wait, so if I sub in at a friend's coffee shop in Queens for two weekends and I live in Connecticut, I owe NYC tax? How would they even know? My friend pays me on Venmo though. Does Venmo report that? Sorry if this is dumb.

smalltown_steph, not dumb. NYC taxes nonresidents on services performed in the city. For a W-2 job, your employer should allocate wages to NY and possibly NYC based on where you actually worked. For a three-day PA gig, the production company likely has a New York unemployment/withholding account, so yes, the city can see the wages if they were reported as NYC wages. You don’t become a resident just for crashing on a couch, but the work location matters.

What trips people is the allocation: if the W-2 lumps all income in NY, you may need to make a nonresident allocation. Keep a log, call sheet, start/end dates, any email that shows you were back in Philadelphia before and after. The city return is separate from state. Be careful: if the employer's payroll system put all income in NYC because the production office is here, the burden is on you to show the days outside the city. Also don’t confuse this with statutory resident rules; that’s for people who keep a place here and spend too many days. Couch-crashing is not a permanent place. There is no free pass just for a short job—you can owe tax on one day—but it’s usually proportional, not your whole annual income.

oldyork_otis is right. I had this with a two-week pilot in Brooklyn while living in Jersey. I didn't allocate and got a notice. What saved me was keeping a paper trail—call sheet, lunch emails, train receipts. I don't love doing extra tax returns, but it was worth it. Just never pay a place that says they can make it disappear for cash.

Three days on a couch doesn't make you a resident, but that couch does make you smell like Greenpoint. The city will tax you on those three days, not the whole year. File the nonresident return and move on.

Appreciate the replies. So if I already had NY state withholding but not city, do I owe city separately? The W-2 has a local box line I think. I don't want to double pay. Also does the fact that I was hired by a company based in LA but shot in Greenpoint change anything?

Following because I just moved here in October and had a remote job with a company in Manhattan before I moved. My HR told me I didn't owe NYC tax for the months I was in Ohio, but now I'm scared after reading this. Is there a form to show you weren't in the city? I just tried looking at the city website and it's a loop of PDFs.

Thank you oldyork_otis! I asked my friend and she says the shop probably isn't reporting it under my name anyway. But I'm going to keep a note in my phone with dates just in case. Do you count the day if you're just picking up a check in the city? No? Okay.

Gowanus_G, yes, the city is separate from the state. If the local box is blank but the wages are shown as NY state wages, your payroll may not have withheld enough for the city. You might still owe the city's share on the days worked in NYC. The LA company issue doesn't help: when they send employees into NYC for a shoot, they generally create nexus for withholding, though some smaller outfits only withhold state.

For firstwinter: you may be able to file a nonresident or part-year return to allocate only the days you worked in the city after moving. The rule isn’t really a form you submit to HR; it’s how you complete the return. If HR won’t correct the W-2, you can still report the correct allocation on your own return, but that can create a mismatch. Ask payroll for a corrected W-2 first.

For smalltown_steph, a day spent only picking up a check in the city is generally not a work day for allocation, unless you performed services. Keep the log. And again, city and state are separate—you can owe one and not the other, or both.

Gowanus_G, I used a tax place on Roosevelt Ave a few years ago for exactly this film garbage. Not glamorous, but they knew the NYC nonresident return. Ask for someone who does production payroll, not just the guy at the mall. Bring the call sheet and the W-2.

Update: my preparer walked through it after the thread. Turns out I owe the city for the three days, but only a small amount, which hurt less than I expected. State was already withheld, city wasn't, so I'm sending a check. Keeping the call sheet from now on. Thanks, all.