Live in North Dakota, work in Minnesota
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Minnesota takes
$0
on wages earned there
North Dakota takes
$0
after the credit it gives
Both together
$0
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
agreementMinnesota does not tax you at all — the two states have an agreement, and you file a certificate with your employer. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the North Dakota bar is the credit it hands back. State income tax only — federal and payroll tax apply on top, and a city wage tax may too.
Which state taxes you, and what it costs
- Working in Minnesota while living in North Dakota is simpler than most border crossings. The two states agreed years ago to leave each other's residents alone on wages. Only North Dakota taxes you, at $0 a year. File the non-residence certificate with your employer, named beside this page, and that is the end of it.
- Around 13,875 jobs link North Dakota to Minnesota this way. That is modest next to the country's large corridors, and it makes no difference at all to what you owe. It might mean explaining your situation to a payroll department that sees it less often.
- North Dakota and Minnesota hold a reciprocity agreement covering wages, so Minnesota does not tax this commuter at all and no resident credit is needed. The commuter files the work state's non-residence certificate with the employer — it is named in the panel beside this page — which stops Minnesota withholding at source, and owes North Dakota alone — $0 at the reference salary, identical to an earner who never crosses the line. ⚠️ The agreement covers WAGES. Other income sourced to Minnesota is outside it, and an employee who does not file the certificate has Minnesota tax withheld and must reclaim it on a non-resident return.
- This is a smaller corridor by national standards — 13,875 jobs in Minnesota held by North Dakota residents — but the rules that govern it are the same rules that govern the largest ones. Corridor size changes how familiar an employer's payroll department is with the paperwork, never the tax treatment.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$203
- Yours$61,389
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax0.27% | $203 |
| Yours81.85% | $61,389 |
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
The arithmetic, step by step
| Minnesota takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| North Dakota charges its residents | $0 |
| Less the credit North Dakota gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $0 |
| If you also worked in North Dakota | $0 |
| Difference | $0 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year, single filer. Both states run progressive schedules, so the figures do not simply scale — use the tool above for your own salary.
What this page does not cover
- City wage taxes are not in these numbers. A few places charge them, and where they do the money is real. If your job in Minnesota is inside a city that taxes workers, add that on top. Where it is not, the state figures above are the whole of it for North Dakota residents.
- Two assumptions sit under this page. First, that Minnesota is where all your pay comes from. Second, that you go there rather than working from your kitchen in North Dakota. Mixed income changes how the credit is worked out, and remote days have their own rules in some states.
- The dollars rest on one assumed salary of sixty thousand. Double your pay and they do not simply double, because both states charge more on higher slices of income. What tends to stay put is which side of the North Dakota and Minnesota comparison you are on.
- These figures cover the STATE layer only. City and municipal wage taxes sit on top of them and are not included: a commuter into Philadelphia pays its wage tax on top of anything here, and Ohio's municipalities run their own credit system, which this site models in its own families. New York City, by contrast, taxes only its residents, so a commuter into it adds nothing at the city level. Whether Minnesota or North Dakota carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Minnesota and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, North Dakota limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Minnesota portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Minnesota rather than remotely — several states tax a non-resident's remote days as though they were worked at the employer's location, which reverses the usual expectation and is handled on this site's reciprocity pages.
- Dollar amounts are computed at a stated reference salary of sixty thousand rather than a corridor wage average, which no published source provides per state pair. Because both states' liabilities and the credit between them are functions of the same income, the direction of the North Dakota to Minnesota comparison holds at other salaries even though the amounts do not — with one qualification worth stating, that a progressive schedule can change the SIZE of the gap at higher incomes, and in Minnesota's case a bracket crossed on one side and not the other is exactly where that happens.
Questions people ask
Do I pay state tax twice, to North Dakota and Minnesota?
You file in both states, but you do not pay the full amount to both. North Dakota credits the tax Minnesota collected, capped at its own charge on that income. The practical result is one bill at the higher of the two levels: $0 for the year.
Does working in Minnesota cost me anything extra?
Nothing extra, on this route. You end the year owing $0, exactly what you would owe if the job were in North Dakota. That is not true of every crossing — plenty of them do cost money — but this one does not. What it does cost you is time at tax filing, because two states may each want a return.
What do I give my employer so Minnesota stops taking tax?
You hand your employer a certificate saying you live in North Dakota. That is what switches Minnesota withholding off. Skip it and nothing is lost forever, but you will be filing in Minnesota to get the money back.
Do I have to file tax returns in both North Dakota and Minnesota?
Usually yes, and it catches people out. North Dakota wants a return because you live there. Minnesota usually wants one too, because you earned money inside it — even in the cases where you end up owing it nothing. Filing in a state and paying it are separate things, and the return is often what proves you do not owe.
What if I work from home in North Dakota some days instead of going to Minnesota?
Normally, days worked at home in North Dakota belong to North Dakota, and only the days you spend in Minnesota are taxed there. That is the ordinary rule. The exception is real though: some states count your remote days as worked at the employer's location anyway. That flips the answer completely, so check Minnesota's rule rather than assuming.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Minnesota on a source basis, North Dakota on residence. The residence state grants a credit for tax paid to the source state, limited to the residence state's own liability on that income. Net combined liability therefore equals the greater of the two liabilities rather than their sum, $0 at the reference salary, and the split between the two treasuries is the only thing the credit changes.
Why is the marginal state-tax cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal cost is zero because the binding liability is the residence state's. North Dakota's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Minnesota's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $0. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Minnesota.
What administrative step gives effect to the reciprocity exemption?
The exemption is self-executing only on filing: the employee furnishes the work state's non-residence certificate to the employer, which relieves the employer of the obligation to withhold Minnesota tax. Absent the certificate the employer withholds, and the employee recovers the amount by filing a Minnesota non-resident return — the liability position is identical, the cash-flow position is not.
What filing obligations arise in each state on this corridor?
Generally two. North Dakota requires a resident return reporting all income; Minnesota requires a non-resident return reporting the income sourced to it, which is also the mechanism by which the resident credit is substantiated. ⚠️ A filing obligation is distinct from a liability: a reciprocity exemption or a zero net position removes tax without necessarily removing the return, and the non-resident return is frequently what establishes the credit claimed on the resident one.
How do remote working days affect sourcing between these two states?
Ordinarily wages are sourced to where the services are performed, so days worked remotely from North Dakota fall outside Minnesota's jurisdiction and the source-state apportionment shrinks accordingly. ⛔ The exception is the "convenience of the employer" rule, which several states apply: a non-resident's remote days are sourced to the employer's location unless the remote work is required by the employer rather than chosen by the employee. The figures on this page model in-person attendance in Minnesota throughout.