CA People

[JG EA]

This is probably a pretty basic question but:

If a couple bought a home in CA, but the wife is living in their old home in another state, the husband has worked full time in CA the whole year and has a new driver's license etc. And the wife is maintaining residency while the children are in school -

do you file a non/partyear resident return in CA? I am not asking about any other state yet, just what does CA want.

Thanks.

[S T]

Ca

Trying to remember how this works. So best way is an example of a client that I have.

Wife lives and works in Ca, husband lives and owns business in Colorado.

File a Calif 540 NR (nonresident or Part Year) for Wife toggle Ca 365 days, residency and owned home in Ca. for husband State is CO, then indicator for wages, other income on for Wife in Calif, nothing for husband in Co. Then CO (which you don't care about in WA) report just the husband's Schedule C earnings, etc in CO.

In your case would be reversed, husband in Ca so report all husband's wages in Ca. Deductions are already entered on Fed Sched A, my software applies the appropriate % based on line 19 taxable income. See Part IV of the 540NR CA Sch, pg 2.

I probably didn't explain this very well, but hope it helps.

Sandy

[DTS]

Ca

JG,

This is a very good question. I had a similar situation last year, but not quite. I prepared two part-year returns. The husband moved to AZ while the wife stayed in CA to work for 6 months, then moved to AZ. They did maintain two households. No notices, so I assume all's OK.

Seems like you could handle this a couple different ways depending on the earnings of each spouse, how long the wife intends to stay, etc. It's my belief that CA is mainly interested in money earned here and if you decide to file two p/y returns, CAs portion will be shown on CA Form CA 540NR along with the amounts earned in the first state.

Like I said earlier, it's a great question and maybe others will jump in and confirm the above or offer different opinion on how to handle this.

Dennis

[jainen]

You can not ask

>>I am not asking about any other state yet, just what does CA want<<

You can not ask just about California. The first question must be: Is the other state also community property? The answer will affect everything from filing status onwards.

[S T]

Comm Prop

Washington is also a Community Property State. Not sure how many other States JG might ask about.

Sandy

[DTS]

Community prop states

There are nine, including CA.

Dennis

[JG EA]

Thanks for all your replies

I think this is going to be a little bit of a project, you all gave me a lot to research and think about. I always hope for easy, but...

[jainen]

you aren't asking

>>I always hope for easy, but...<<

Well, of course... but just out of idle curiousity, what IS the other state, the one you aren't asking about?

[jainen]

what I figgered

Yeah, that's about what I figgered.