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.

New York's RSU/stock-comp source rule (20 NYCRR §132.24) taxes its grant-to-vest workday fraction of the vest income regardless of how many days that is. The '14-day rule' (TSB-M-12(5)I) is a separate, narrower provision: if you worked fewer than 14 days in New York during the year, your employer is not required to withhold New York tax on that pay in advance. That is a withholding convenience for the employer, not a tax exemption — the income is still New York-sourced and may still be owed on your New York nonresident return. 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.