Question

2019 California Taxes on Military Income

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 3, 2020
2 replies
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My home of record is California, and I have been stationed outside of California for roughly a year and a half, since August 2018. I have PCSed twice since November 2018, never returning to CA, making me a Nonresident with no CA Income from all of 2019. However, my Military Pay has been taxed by CA every month and I'm very confused. My question is should I file my taxes with CA this year (2020)?

State Filing

DanielV01

If California tax has been withheld from your military pay, then yes, you want to file a California return. As is shown at the following California FTB website: CA Military Income, a California resident stationed outside of California is not taxed on Military Pay, because California no longer considers it to be "California Sourced".

Make sure your W-2 is marked as "active-duty" pay, and carefully follow the prompts in the California State return to mark that you were stationed outside of California. If you do that, your Military Income should be excluded from California, and, since CA tax was withheld on that income, you should receive a refund of the withholdings.

Contact DFAS to have them stop withholding CA tax from your Military pay if you do not wish to go through this every year you are stationed outside of CA.

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J

joanne124

I am filing my nephew's taxes. He is a TX residence but the military is still withholding CA taxes. The federal filing for him does not produce a CA return for filing even though he is entitled to a refund of the taxes withheld. What do we do?

DMarkM1

You will file non-resident CA return.

1. Click "My Info" in the left hand menu

2. Scroll down to "Other State Income"

3. Click "Edit"

4. You will need to add CA here

That should trigger a Nonresident CA return. Be sure the W2 income is marked military pay. Additionally, your nephew should visit his finance office to file the correct forms to have CA stop withholding if now a TX resident.

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E

ee-ea

If your Home of Record is CA you pay taxes to CA. You are stuck for 2019 with CA but you can change the HOR for 2020.

Critter

@ee-ea

CA doesn’t tax non resident military even if the SLR is CA. Poster needs to file a nonresident CA return to get back the withholding and stop future CA withholding until they return to CA.