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« on: Jul 01, 2010, 09:59 pm »
Liz--
Congrats on the new job. I have been on the road for three years and where I reside has mattered for some of my taxes and not for others.
With one company I paid my taxes to my home state, (IA, where my folks live, where I vote and where my drivers license is) and the company I worked for paid my portion of tax to the state where I was employed in (MD/NJ depending on the tour). When it came time to file for my unemployment it was very easy, I just contacted my home state and they contacted MD and along came my check.
I have also been on a tour where we paid our taxes to each individual state we played (42 states!). This created a bit of a nightmare at tax time. I turned all of my W4s over to my accountant and he figured out where it was worth it for me to file and where it would cost me more to file. This did create a bit of an issue when it came time to file for unemployment. I had to contact NJ, where my employer was based out of and then NJ directed me elsewhere. It was not ideal.
If you have a choice in how you pay your taxes, which you probably do not as most company's have a policy, I would vote for paying all of your taxes to your home state. (There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as MA and CA.) It just makes things easier when you need to file unemployment and do your taxes.
Feel free to send me a message if you would like to talk more about this.