Fema Employment

How to file for tax return when my husband just got back pay for his previous job in a different state?

My husband used to work in NY in 2005 and we are now living and working in NJ. He received a few pay checks from his previous employer in 3Q08 for back pay(they were negotiating a contract back then and things were finalized). Those were supposed to be income back in 2005 and all the taxes(federal, state and city plus SS) were taken out but I am not sure how we are supposed to file for the tax return for 2008 regarding this income. We no longer live in NY and we are living and working in NJ, but I believe that we still have to file this as our income, yet there is no W2 from the previous employer and only the pay stubs. I am trying to do our tax return by TurboTax and this I was about to file electronically when my husband brought up this issue of the small income received from his previous employer. I really do not want to spend $200 to hire someone to do our tax and I would appreciate if anyone can provide my information or where I should look into or any government agents that I can talk to regarding this. Thanks in advance! I viewed one of the answers and wanted to clarify that the additional pay did not arrived till 3Q08, thus it was not included in the W2 in 2005. I understand that I can make use of the online chat with TurboTax but I do want to learn more from the yahoo crowd first! Thanks again!

Public Comments

1. Turbo Tax has live online support (chat) as well as phone support. Send them your question. Their agents should be more knowledgeable than most of the help you'll get here.
2. Wages are delcared as income in the year they are paid, not the year the work was done. Call the employer to ask if/when they are going to send you a 2008 W-2 to cover this payment. If they refuse, you will need to follow the instructions to Form 4852, using the link below. Then, you will need to include the income in your federal and NJ resident returns for 2008, and file a nonresident NY return showing this income as well. You should prepare the federal return first, then the NY nonresident return, and the NJ resident return last, since the result from your NY return is needed to determine the credit on your NJ return for taxes paid to another state. Sorry it's so complicated, but you can do it with Turbo Tax without hiring a CPA.