Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Guide for Part-Year and Nonresidents

Learn whether you qualify as a part-year resident, nonresident or both. See what exemptions, deductions and credits are available.

Posted: September 4, 2026

Guide Disclaimer

This guide is not designed to address all questions that may arise nor to address complex issues in detail.

Nothing contained herein supersedes, alters or otherwise changes any provision of:

• Massachusetts General Laws
• Massachusetts DOR ruling and/or regulations 
• Any other sources of the law.

Tax Year 2025 Filing Season Video & Updates

Learn about recent law changes, new tax initiatives, credits, and tips for filing your taxes for 2025 with DOR's Filing Season Update Video and Updates.

Residency Status

If you are not a full year resident, your residency status will be either as a part-year resident, nonresident, or both. 

Part-Year Resident

You're a part-year resident if you:

• Move to Massachusetts during the tax year and become a resident, or
• Move out of Massachusetts during the tax year and end your status as a resident. 

If you're a part-year resident with an annual Massachusetts gross income of more than $8,000, you must file a Massachusetts tax return.

Part-year residents use Form 1-NR/PY, Massachusetts Nonresident/Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return. 

Nonresident

If you're a nonresident of Massachusetts, you must file a Massachusetts income tax return if you received Massachusetts source income in excess of your personal exemption multiplied by the ratio of your Massachusetts source income to your total income, or your Massachusetts source income was greater than $8,000

You're a nonresident if you are neither a full-year nor a part-year resident. Your Massachusetts tax treatment is based on your residency status and not the type of visa you hold.

Nonresidents use Form 1-NR/PY, Massachusetts Nonresident/Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return.

If your employer mistakenly withheld Massachusetts income tax, file a Massachusetts Nonresident/Part-Year Resident Return, Form 1-NR/PY, to request a refund. Submit a letter from your employer along with the return, which verifies that you didn't work in Massachusetts.

Part-Year Resident and Nonresident 

You are both a nonresident and part-year resident if you meet the criteria above for both the part-year resident and nonresident categories. If filing as a nonresident and part-year resident, the Schedule R/NR must be completed.

To qualify as both a nonresident and part-year resident, you must have Massachusetts source income during the nonresident portion of the year. Otherwise, you qualify as a part year resident only. 

For more information on residency status, visit Legal and Residency Status in Massachusetts.

Filing Status

For federal purposes, your filing status determines your income tax rate. For Massachusetts purposes, your filing status determines how many personal exemptions you're allowed. For federal purposes, there are 5 filing statuses:

• Single
• Married filing a joint return
• Married filing a separate return
• Head of household
• Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child

Massachusetts offers all but the qualifying widow(er) with dependent child. Generally, if you claim this status federally, you qualify for head of household for Massachusetts.

Reporting on your original tax return

Enter your filing status on Form 1-NR/PY, line 1, and fill in the appropriate oval. Enter your spouse's Social Security number in the appropriate space at the top of the return under taxpayer's Social Security number. If you're married filing joint, both spouses must sign the return.

Determining Income

Part-year residents - Include gross income from all sources during your residency period.

Nonresidents - Include gross income from sources in Massachusetts. This includes income related to:

• Any trade, business, or employment you carried on in Massachusetts, whether or not you actively engaged in a trade, business, or employment in Massachusetts in the year you received the income
• Participating in any lottery or wagering transaction in Massachusetts
• Owning (or having any interest in) real or tangible personal property in Massachusetts
• Interest and gains from trade or business conducted in Massachusetts.

*Single Sales Factor Apportionment   

Effective for tax years beginning on or after Jan­uary 1, 2025, personal income tax filers that are required to apportion their income to Massachu­setts must do so by using the sales factor only. See TIR 24-4, Section IV, for a general discussion of this change.

Exemptions

Part-Year Resident

As a part-year resident, your exemptions are based on days you spent as a Massachusetts resident.

Multiply your exemptions by the Total Days as a Massachusetts Resident ratio (Form 1-NR/PY, line 22a by line 3). This ratio is the number of days you were a Massachusetts resident divided by 365 days.

If you have a short taxable year, you're only allowed the exemptions related to the number of days you spent as a Massachusetts resident divided by 365.

Nonresident

As a nonresident, your exemptions are based on the income you reported.

Multiply your exemption amounts by the Nonresident Deduction and Exemption Ratio (Form 1-NR/PY, line 22a by line 14g). This ratio is your Massachusetts gross income (from sources in Massachusetts), divided by Massachusetts gross income from all sources (as if you were a full-year Massachusetts resident).

For more information visit Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Exemptions.

Deductions

Federal Conformity   

In general, a taxpayer’s Massachusetts gross in­come and many deductions are based on the taxpayer’s federal gross income and deductions under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) as of a spe­cific date. For tax years beginning on or after Jan­uary 1, 2024, the Massachusetts personal income tax generally conforms to the IRC as amended and in effect on January 1, 2024. For further in­formation regarding federal tax law changes see TIR 24-14 and TIR 26-4: Massachusetts Conformity to Certain Provisions in Public Law No. 119-21.  

As a general rule, Massachusetts does not con­form to personal income tax law changes to the IRC made after January 1, 2024. However, certain specific Massachusetts personal income tax pro­visions, as set forth in MGL ch. 62, § 1(c), auto­matically conform to the IRC currently in effect. The provisions of the IRC that Massachusetts con­forms to on a current basis include those provi­sions relating to:   

• Roth IRAs;  
• IRAs; 
• The exclusion for gain on the sale of a principal residence;  
• Trade or business expenses;  
• Travel expenses;  
• Meals and entertainment expenses;  
• The maximum deferral amount of government employees’ deferred compensation plans;  
• The deduction for health insurance costs of self-employed taxpayers;  
• Medical and dental expenses;  
• Annuities;  
• Health savings accounts;  
• Employer-provided health insurance coverage;  
• Amounts received by an employee under a health and accident plan; and  
• Contributions to qualified tuition programs.
• Contributions to qualified tuition programs.

Part-Year Residents

Part-year residents can only take deductions in proportion to the number of days they were a Massachusetts resident.The deduction is multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of days in the taxable year the person resided in the Commonwealth and the denominator of which is the total number of days in the taxable year.

In addition to deductions that you will find on the Form 1-NR/PY itself, such as those allowed for Amounts Paid to Social Security and Medicare (FICA), Railroad, U.S. or Massachusetts retirement systems, and the rental deduction, you may also report certain deductions on Schedule Y. 

Nonresidents

For nonresidents, you can only take deductions that are attributable to the income you reported.

Multiply your deduction by the Nonresident Deduction and Exemption ratio (Form 1-NR/PY, line 14). This ratio is your Massachusetts gross income (from sources in Massachusetts), divided by your Massachusetts gross income from all sources (as if you were a full-year resident).

In addition to deductions that you will find on the Form 1-NR/PY itself, such as those allowed for Amounts Paid to Social Security and Medicare (FICA), Railroad, U.S. or Massachusetts retirement systems, and the rental deduction, you may also report certain deductions on Schedule Y. 

Listing of Deductions

For more information on the list of deductions relevant to part-year residents, visit Nonresident and Part-year Resident Deductions and Exemptions. In general, for nonresidents, these deductions are only allowed if directly related to specific taxable income reported on Form 1-NR/PY or to a personal Massachusetts residence.

Credits

As a part-year resident or nonresident, you may also qualify for certain personal income tax credits, which can reduce the amount of tax you owe.

Business-related Credits

Certain business-related credits may be used to offset a tax due, may be passed or shared with another person, and, in some cases, may be fully or partially refundable. For a list of common business-related credits which you may be able to claim on your personal income tax return, see our business-related credits page. 

Earned Income Tax Credit  (part-year residents only)

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), benefits working families with low to moderate incomes. You're entitled to the EIC if you have Massachusetts source earned income and file a tax return, even if you don't owe any tax or aren't required to file.

You may be eligible for the credit if you:

• File as a part-year resident during the tax year,
• Qualify for the federal EITC

For part-year residents, the amount of the Massachusetts EITC is limited to 40% of the federal EIC multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of days in the taxable year the person resided and the denominator of which is the total number of days in the taxable year.

You're not eligible for the EITC if:

• You did not file a Massachusetts return for the tax year.
• You were a nonresident for the entire taxable year
• Your status is married filing separately (however, if you are a victim of domestic abuse living apart from your spouses and unable to file a joint return, you may still be eligible. See Form 1-NR/PY instructions, line 43 for more information on how to file under this exception)

To claim the EITC on your return: 

1. Enter the number of qualifying children you have, if any, on Form 1-NR/PY, line 47a
2. Enter the amount reported on your federal return, on Form 1-NR/PY, line 47b
3. Multiply the amount reported on your federal return by 0.4 and enter the amount in on Form 1-NR/PY, line 47c
4. Multiply line 47c by Form 1-NR/PY, line 3.
5. Enter the new result in Form 1-NR/PY, line 47

Visit the EITC page for more information including the maximum EITC allowed.

Income Tax Paid to Another State or Jurisdiction (part-year residents only)

If any of the income earned while a part-year resident and reported on your return is taxed  in another state or jurisdiction and you have filed a return and paid taxes in the other state or jurisdiction, you may be allowed a credit for the tax paid. Note that tax due is different from taxes withheld. For this credit, use the calculated tax due to the other state or jurisdiction, not the tax withheld.

This credit is allowed for taxes paid to:

• Other states in the U.S.
• Any territory or dependency of the U.S., including:
  • Puerto Rico
  • The Virgin Islands
  • Guam
  • The District of Columbia
  • Canada or any of its provinces

You must first reduce the taxes you paid by the amount allowed as a federal Foreign Tax Credit on U.S. Form 1116, claimed or not.

• New Hampshire for business profits tax (considered an income tax)
• District of Columbia Unincorporated Business Franchise Tax (UBT)

This credit is not allowed for:

• Taxes paid on Massachusetts source income earned while a nonresident
• Taxes paid to the U.S. government
• Taxes paid to a foreign country other than Canada or any of its provinces
• Any city or local tax
• Interest and penalties paid to another jurisdiction
• Excise, property tax or franchise tax

See if you qualify for the Other Jurisdiction Credit by completing Schedule OJC: Income Tax Due to Other Jurisdictions and attaching the schedule to your return.

The credit is the smaller of:

• Massachusetts income tax on income you reported to the other jurisdiction, or
• The actual tax you paid to the other jurisdiction

For more information, visit Income tax paid to another jurisdiction credit.

Residential Property Credits

If you own residential property in Massachusetts, you may be able to claim certain credits on your Massachusetts personal income tax return.

For more information visit Massachusetts Residential Property Tax Credits.

No Tax Status & Limited Income Credit

If your Massachusetts Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) doesn't exceed certain amounts for the taxable year, you qualify for No Tax Status (NTS) and are not required to pay any Massachusetts income tax, but still need to file a tax return.

Adjusted gross income is gross income reduced by certain business expenses and other deductions claimed on Massachusetts Schedule Y, lines 1 to 10, such as alimony paid or student loan interest, etc. 
Except for line 4, these are generally federal allowable deductions.

If you do not qualify for NTS, but your Massachusetts AGI still doesn't exceed certain amounts, you may qualify for the Limited Income Credit (LIC), which may reduce your tax significantly.

Married filing separate taxpayers do not qualify for either NTS or LIC.

See if you qualify for NTS and LIC by completing Schedule NTS-L-NR/PY, No Tax Status and Limited Income Credit, lines 1 to 11. Compute your Massachusetts adjusted gross income (AGI) as if you were a Massachusetts resident for the entire taxable year.

While determining whether you qualify for NTS, include all non-Massachusetts source income as well as all deductions not originally reported on Schedule Y, lines 2 through 9b and line 10 because of your nonresident or part-year resident status which would have been reported on Schedule Y if you were a full-year resident. Non-Massachusetts source income is all the income you'd have to report if you were a Massachusetts resident. Report all losses as 0.

If you don't qualify for NTS, you may still be entitled to LIC. Fill out  Schedule NTS-L-NR/PY,  lines 1 to 17 to calculate the claimable LIC amount.

For more information visit Massachusetts No Tax Status and Limited Income Credit.

Resources

Tax Filing Assistance  Amend a Return  File an Extension