RSU Trailing State Tax Calculator

RSU vest income reported on your W-2 is treated as compensation earned over the grant-to-vest period. States that you worked in during that period can tax the portion attributable to the workdays you spent there, even if you have since moved. So your former state can still tax the W-2 portion of RSUs that vested after your move.

The W-2 vest income is split by workday fraction: the days you physically worked in each state during the grant-to-vest period, divided by the total business days in that period. Each state taxes its workday share. This calculator lets you enter workdays per state and computes the former-state portion automatically.

California follows FTB Publication 1004. Vest income stays California-sourced for the share of the grant-to-vest period you worked in California, so California can tax that portion even after you leave. Non-residents report the California-sourced amount on Form 540NR.

Under New York's allocation rules (NYCRR §132.18), if you worked more than 14 days in New York during the grant-to-vest period, New York taxes its workday fraction of the vest income. If you worked 14 or fewer days in New York during that period, the allocation is excluded. Non-residents file Form IT-203.

The capital gain — the difference between your sale price and the vest-date fair market value (your cost basis) — is generally sourced to the state where you live when you sell, not the former state. The former state's claim is limited to the W-2 compensation portion measured at vest.

If your sale state is one with no income tax — such as Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, or Tennessee — the capital gain after vest is not taxed at the state level. However, your former state can still tax its workday-allocated share of the W-2 vest income earned while you worked there.