Virginia State Income Tax Filing

Virginia income tax at a glance

Virginia is technically a graduated-rate state and effectively a flat one. There are four brackets, but the top rate of 5.75% begins at just $17,000 of taxable income — so essentially every working filer in Virginia reaches the top band, and the lower rates apply to a slice so small they barely register. The genuinely distinctive thing about Virginia is the deadline: individual returns are due May 1, two weeks after the federal date, under Virginia Code § 58.1-341. That trips up people who assume the state follows the IRS calendar, and it also means a Virginia return can still be filed on time after the federal one is already late. Northern Virginia adds a second wrinkle, because a very large number of filers live in one jurisdiction and work in DC or Maryland, and Virginia's reciprocity arrangements determine which of them actually taxes those wages.

Virginia tax rates

Standard deduction

$8,750 single · $17,500 joint

Personal exemption

$930 per person

Rates and thresholds as of January 1, 2026. State legislatures change these mid-year and several states index brackets annually — check against Virginia Tax before relying on a figure.

What to watch out for in Virginia

• Virginia's individual filing deadline is May 1 under Va. Code § 58.1-341, not April 15. If the date falls on a weekend or holiday it moves to the next business day.
• Because the top bracket starts at $17,000 of taxable income, Virginia behaves like a flat 5.75% state for almost anyone with a full-time salary. The graduated structure has very little practical effect.
• Virginia has reciprocity arrangements with the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Where reciprocity applies, wages are generally taxed only by your state of residence, which is the single most useful fact for a Northern Virginia commuter.
• Virginia grants an automatic six-month filing extension with no application required, though payment is still due by the original date.

Virginia has a foreign tax credit, but only on retirement income

Virginia does something no other state on this list does. Alongside the ordinary credit for tax paid to another state under Va. Code § 58.1-332, there is a separate provision at § 58.1-332.1 granting a credit for income tax paid to a foreign country specifically on retirement income. It is narrow, and it is a real exception rather than a technicality: a Virginia resident drawing a pension or annuity from India may be able to credit the Indian tax on it against Virginia tax, where a resident of California or New Jersey would get nothing.

The limits matter as much as the provision. It reaches retirement income and not wages, interest or rent. Virginia Code § 58.1-332.2 requires that the foreign tax be substantially similar to Virginia's own income tax before either credit applies, and a country that would not qualify for the federal foreign tax credit is also disqualified here. So this is a provision to check carefully against your facts, not one to assume.

There is a second Virginia quirk worth knowing even though it concerns other US states rather than India. The ordinary § 58.1-332 credit is written for tax on earned or business income and on gains from the sale of a capital asset — it is not a general credit covering every category of income. Virginia is more specific here than most states, which is exactly why the assumption that "my state credits tax paid elsewhere" is unsafe as a general proposition.

Northern Virginia's concentration of consulting, federal contracting and technology employers means a large Indian professional population, and for most of them the practical position on Indian income is the same as elsewhere: taxable in Virginia at an effective 5.75%, with no credit unless it is retirement income. The May 1 deadline does at least give two extra weeks to get the Indian documentation together, which for anyone waiting on a Form 26AS is not a trivial benefit.

Because the retirement-income credit turns on how a particular Indian pension or annuity is characterised, and on the substantially-similar test, this is a provision to evaluate on your own documents with Virginia Tax as the authority. We flag it because almost nobody knows it exists, not because it is straightforward.

Go deeper on the India side

These guides cover the federal treatment of Indian income and assets in detail. They apply wherever you live in the US — Virginia sits on top of them.

• The Foreign Tax Credit and Form 1116The mechanism that actually stops you being taxed twice — and it does not work evenly. NRE interest is fully taxable in the US with no credit at all, because India exempted it. Plus the April-March year mismatch nobody warns you about.
• The India-US Tax TreatyIt does not stop the US taxing your Indian income — a saving clause preserves that. What the treaty really provides, why the foreign tax credit is the actual mechanism, and the one benefit that is unique to India.
• FBAR and Indian Bank AccountsWhich Indian accounts are reportable on FinCEN Form 114 — savings, NRE, NRO, FCNR, fixed deposits, PPF, EPF, demat — how the $10,000 aggregate threshold really works, and why many F-1 students owe nothing at all.
• Form 8938 and FATCA ReportingFiling an FBAR does not satisfy Form 8938, and neither form is a subset of the other. The thresholds, and exactly which Indian holdings each one catches — including the ones only Form 8938 reaches.
• EPF, PPF and NPS on a US ReturnThe hardest topic in India-US filing, and the one where a confident answer should worry you. There is a Form 3520 exception almost nobody claims — and a timing question that is genuinely unsettled, so we set out the positions instead of picking one.

Forms and deadlines

Which form

Form 760 for residents, Form 760PY for part-year residents, Form 763 for non-residents

Deadline

May 1, not April 15 — Virginia sets its own individual filing deadline.

State authority

Virginia Tax

Federal deadlines are separate from state ones. Our US tax deadlines page covers the federal calendar, and the federal tax brackets apply on top of whatever Virginia charges.

Want the arithmetic done for you? The Virginia state tax calculator applies the schedule above to a salary and shows the result band by band.

Where these figures come from

Rates, bracket floors, standard deductions and exemptions are taken from the compilation below, stated as of January 1, 2026 and built from state statutes, forms and instructions. The state authority is always the final word on your own position.

• Tax Foundation — 2026 State Income Tax Rates and Brackets
• Virginia Tax

Reviewed by Teja K, CPA · last reviewed September 15, 2026. General information, not tax advice for your situation. State tax law changes frequently — confirm before acting. How we research and review this.