Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: More than one state can tax the same vest. Many states allocate the income by where you worked during the period between grant and vest, so a move mid-vesting generally splits the income rather than moving all of it.
Why both states can be right
RSU income is compensation for services performed between grant and vest. If you performed those services partly in one state and partly in another, both have a claim on the portion earned within their borders. The usual mechanic is a workday allocation across the grant-to-vest period.
Your new state of residence will generally tax you on all income as a resident, and then give a credit for tax paid to the source state on the portion it also taxed.
States differ substantially in how they apply this, and some are considerably more aggressive about sourcing than others. This page describes the general framework, not any particular state’s rule — that is a question for a preparer who handles both states.
What actually matters at the decision point
Moving does not retroactively un-source income you already earned elsewhere. What a move changes is the allocation of future vesting periods, which means the benefit builds over time rather than arriving on the day you move.
The paperwork that decides this
Workday records between grant and vest are what an allocation rests on. If you moved mid-period, the date you established residency, the date you stopped working in the old state, and where you physically worked in between are all facts a preparer will need and that get harder to reconstruct with time. Write them down when the move happens.
Withholding will not match the answer
Your employer withholds based on where payroll thinks you are, which is often one state. That is unlikely to match a workday allocation across two, so a multistate vest year usually produces both a refund in one state and a balance due in another.
Sources
IRC §83(a) (income at vest); state allocation follows each state’s own sourcing statute — no single federal rule governs it.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and equity compensation interacts with the rest of your return in ways a single page cannot see.