Who Must File California State Income Taxes?
If you live in California, or earn money from California businesses, you may be required to file a California state income tax return. Even if you don't owe money, you should consider filing a return to receive a refund if you had state tax withheld from a paycheck during the year or if you paid estimated taxes. State income tax requirements are determined by the source of the income and it's total value.
Other People Are Reading
-
California Residents
-
All California residents must file a state tax return if their income is more than a certain threshold, regardless of where the income came from. There are several income levels and these vary from year to year. Residents should calculate both their gross income and their adjusted gross income when they determine whether they meet the threshold requirement. For 2010, a single person under 65 with no dependents is required to file a return if her gross income exceeded $14,754. The threshold goes up from this point -- you can earn more money if you have dependents, are married, are 65 or older or some combination thereof. You can find the complete list of tax thresholds at CA.gov.
Part-time Residents and Nonresidents
-
Part-time residents and nonresidents must file a California tax return if they earned money from California sources and their total income from all sources exceeds the tax threshold. The tax thresholds for part-time and nonresidents is the same as those for residents.
-
Deceased Persons
-
If a person dies during the year, the state of California requires that the executor or administrator of the estate file a final tax return on his behalf. Decedents who were married should still be filed jointly, and the surviving spouse must sign the form. If a tax return would not be necessary under normal circumstances -- the decedent's income fell below the threshold -- this requirement is waived. If there is no executor or administrator, a surviving spouse can file the return.
Children with Investment Income
-
Parents of children who have interest and dividend income throughout the year should file a tax return on their behalf if the child is less than 19 years old and received more than $1,900 in investment income. Alternatively, the parent can add the child's investment income to her own return using form FTB 3803. The child cannot have made more than $9,500 in investment income and it must be solely from interest and dividends, as of 2011.
-
