State Income Tax question

bluebayou
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 01:22:36 +0000

Student need to file State income tax return in CA and only include wages received in CA. Student needs to file non resident state income tax return in MA and only include wages received in MA. Correct?

Not quite. For clarity to the state, she should show all federal wages received in the Total box, and then aportion that amount to how much was received in California, or zero in her case. Yes, California loves to tax anything that moves but if you go thru the hassle of filing the correct forms, the state gets zero. (Both of my SoCal kids ‘worked’ in MA during school or right after, and they paid zero tax to California on their MA earnings.)

It might make more sense if you take a look at schedule CA, Form 540NR (about half way thru the booklet).