CA Question

[Kram BergGold]

My client was a full year Ma resident and worked in MA. His employer treated him as if he worked in CA and withheld CA taxes. They won't correct the situation. So do I file a CA non resident return with zero's all over it and a note about the fact that he was never in CA working, or is there some other way to do this?

[JohnH]

That's how I would do it. You may be in for a long haul if CA tags him as some sort of tax protestor or otherwise refuses to issue the refund. In dealing with other states on this in the past, I found that in some cases they just send the refund, but in other cases they really don't want to let go of the money so they stall. In any event, I don't think there's anything to do at the outset other than file the "zero tax due" return and get the process in motion.

Has the employer corrected the situation this year? If he's still working at the same company and if they won't withhold for MA, then he should increase his CA exemptions enough to zero out the withholding and then pay estimated tax to MA.

One additional thought - unless someone from CA jumps in and provides other info on this forum, it would probably be worth making a phone call to CA Revenue dept just to ask if they have any suggestions. You might get lucky and connect with someone who can speed up the process or have you send the info directly to them. That happened to me one time with NC Dept of Revenue on a corporation tax matter, and I keep that person's extension number handy to use any time there's a special situation I run across that she can expedite for me.

[DTS]

Kram

CA, probably, will know he is not a resident because of DMV, bank records, election records etc. Make the call to FTB anyway. If nothing else, get your client's refund back.

Clearly sounds like a big error on the em'ers part.

D

[RLymanC]

MA verses CA

Was he really a MA resident, or just work there as a CA resident?
Calculate both states, if CA is less file a CA return.

[Gary]

I agree

I have had similar cases ( but not with CA) and that is the way I handled it. File a CA NR and attribute zero wages to CA.