Living in Montana, working in North Dakota
Reciprocal agreement · tax year 2026
You pay Montana
$2,594
on a seventy-thousand wage
North Dakota would want
$106
The agreement is worth
$0
in money — the gain is one return, not two
File this
NDW-R
with your employer
What the agreement does for you
- Do not expect a check from this one. Between Montana and North Dakota, home charges $2,594 on a seventy-thousand-dollar wage and the work state would have charged $106. Because home is the dearer of the two, your bill is the same with or without the agreement. What changes is that you file once instead of twice.
- It does not stay the same as you earn more. On forty-five thousand dollars the Montana bill is $1,358; on a hundred thousand it is $4,289. North Dakota would have charged $691 at that higher wage. The two states pull apart as the salary rises, which is why this matters more to a senior job than a starter one.
- None of this happens by itself. Living in Montana, you have to hand your employer the exemption form for North Dakota, and keep doing it. Most states want it again each year. Miss it and North Dakota withholds from every paycheck as though no agreement existed. You would get it back by filing there, which is the very thing the agreement was meant to spare you.
- No dollar saving arises on this pairing: Montana levies $2,594 against North Dakota's $106 at seventy thousand dollars, and since the home charge is the larger, a resident credit would have absorbed the work state's tax entirely. ⭐ The agreement's value is the elimination of nonresident filing and of incorrect withholding across the year — which is the outcome most commuters are actually seeking when they ask about reciprocity.
- The differential is income-dependent rather than fixed. Montana's liability runs $1,358 at forty-five thousand dollars and $4,289 at one hundred thousand, against $691 in North Dakota at the upper figure. Where one state applies a flat rate and the other a graduated schedule the gap widens or narrows monotonically with income, so a single-salary comparison understates how much the pairing matters across a career.
- The exemption is elective and employee-initiated: the certificate must be filed with the employer, and most agreement states require renewal annually. ⚠️ Without it on file the employer is obliged to withhold North Dakota tax regardless of the agreement's existence, and recovery then requires a nonresident return in North Dakota — restoring precisely the compliance burden the agreement removes, with the cash held by the wrong state until the claim is processed.
What lands in your account
A $75,000 salary
Filing as
Paid
$2,258per paycheck
| Take-home, year | $58,716 |
|---|---|
| Tax, year | $16,284 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.71% |
This is an average rate across all your pay — not the rate on your next dollar.
Montana against North Dakota
A $75,000 salary
Compare with
+$4,246a year in North Dakota, once local prices are leveled
| Measure | Montana | North Dakota |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,716 | $61,389 |
| Worth after local prices | $65,063 | $69,310 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.71% | 18.15% |
| State sales tax | 0% | 5% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | Yes | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.72% | 0.99% |
| Price level | 90.2 | 88.6 |
| Housing prices | 76.7 | 69.4 |
| Fuel tax | 33¢ | 23¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.70 | $0.44 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Montana, No general sales tax; North Dakota, Statewide average. Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
Moving to
$69,501in North Dakota, for the same life
| To match take-home only | $71,092 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$5,499 |
| Prices in North Dakota | 89 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
What each state would charge, across the ladder
Reference wages for a single filer, not a claim about anyone's salary. The last column is the difference the agreement actually removes — which is the gap between the two states, not North Dakota's whole charge.
| Wage | Montana charges | North Dakota would charge | Agreement is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $1,358 | $0 | $0 |
| $70,000 | $2,594 | $106 | $0 |
| $100,000 | $4,289 | $691 | $0 |
What this page cannot tell you
- This covers wages from a job. It does not cover self-employment, rent or investment income — those follow the ordinary rules for North Dakota.
- ⚠️ And it is a deal between two states. City and county taxes are not part of it, and several of these states have them.
- Every agreement in this dataset applies to wages and salaries only. Business, rental, gain and investment income sourced to North Dakota remains taxable there under ordinary nonresident rules, and a commuter with such income may still owe a North Dakota return notwithstanding the agreement.
- ⚠️ Reciprocity binds the state layer only and commonly does NOT extend to municipal or county income taxes — Pennsylvania's local earned income tax is the standard example, remaining payable at the place of employment despite the state-level agreement. Local liabilities are excluded from every figure on this page.