Hello,

My son, a recent college graduate, has just started his first job. He will be traveling from city to city constantly throughout the first year, living in hotels, and not establishing residence in any state, to include the state where his company is located (which has state income tax). He will not be in any one state for more than a few weeks, and he will be paid by his company, and not earn income from state resources. His home of record is in Florida, where there is no state income tax. Where should he file his federal taxes?

basically he needs to report all of taxable income that he earns in any state to the IRS;unless he ia reg employee, I mean W2 employee, as an contractor, he needs to file Sch C of 1040 aslongas the amount on line 29 / 31 is $400 or exceeds $400 and also needs to pay self employment tax aslongas the amt on sch SE lline 2 / 3 is also $400 or exceeds $400. If he is filing as a sole proprietor, and/or a self-employed individual, your son should use Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals to figure and pay his estimated tax. However, he does not have to pay estimated tax for the current year if he had no tax liability for the prior year ;he were a U.S. citizen or resident for the whole year
;his prior tax year covered a 12 month period . if he ia a regulkar w2 employee then unless he earnes taxable extra income,i.e., capital gain , dividend income or etc, he does not needs to pay quarterly estimated taxes. Also basically he as a nonresident of those states ,needs to report any taxable income that he earns in each state to the state dept of revenue as a non resident of the state.but as you said, unless he earns any income from state resources, he does not need to file /report income to the states.

I am not sure if I asked my question correctly, and I definitely do not understand your answer. Let me restate the question:

The employee, who lives in Florida, will be a W2 employee of a company with its only office in Montana. The employee will be working in multiple states throughout the year, staying in each state a few weeks at most, and he will not establish residence in any other state outside of Florida (he will be living in hotels). It is unknown at this time if the employee will work in Florida or Montana at all. The employee will only draw wages from the company in Montana (not from any state resources in the states he travels to). Where should the employee file his federal income taxes? Florida or Montana?

Then he needs to file 1040 with the IRS on his income from the biz inMontana and he also needs to file his return with dept of revenue of Montana as a nonresident of Montana; no need to file his return with FL as there is no income tax in FL state. He may claim income tax paid to Montana on his SCh A of 1040 aslongas he itemizes deductions on 1040. as SAID W2 EE of the firm in Montana needs to report all of taxable income that he earns in any state to the IRS;. Since he is a regular w2 employee then unless he earns taxable extra income,i.e., capital gain , dividend income or etc, he does not needs to pay quarterly estimated taxes as you said, as the whole of his income is from only the firm in Montana, then he needs topay tax on the income only to Montana as a nonresident of Montana. but as you said, unless he earns any income from other state resources, he does not need to file /report income to the states.