My son interned in Seattle For 3 Months

[Ravi Ammamuthu]

My son interned in Seattle for 3 months. Does he have to file state returns in Washington?

[DawnC]

No.  Washington has no income tax.  

[Ravi Ammamuthu]

Thank you. My son is CA resident but did the internship in SEA for 12 weeks. Great that he does not need to file any WA state tax. Since, he had the income only from SEA and a full time student, does he need to pay the CA tax and state him as a CA resident?

[xmasbaby0]

Yes.   If he is a student and you are claiming him as your dependent, then he is considered to be living at home in CA----living away for school is a temporary absence.  Although he pays no tax for WA, that income goes on a federal and CA return if he is filing.

MY DEPENDENT HAD A JOB

If your dependent has a W-2 for his after-school job, summer job, etc. you do not include the information on your own return. You can still claim your child as a dependent on your own return.  He/she can file his own return for a refund of some of his withheld wages (he won’t get back anything for Social Security or Medicare), but MUST indicate on it that he can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.  (Supervise this closely or prepare it for him!)

If your dependent’s earnings were over $400 and were reported on a 1099Misc or 1099NEC then he must file a return and pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.

You might also want to use free software from the IRS Free File versions:

https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/

[Ravi Ammamuthu]

Hi There, Thank you. He is studying within CA only and my home is also CA only. However the internship is the only thing that he has done in WA and his income only from WA and he stayed in WA for the 12 weeks of internship.

I did not claim him as dependent. He is filing himself. So with this situation, does he still need to file for CA state?

[Vanessa A · Accepted solution]

Yes, if your son is a CA resident and left the state temporarily for the internship, then this would be considered income taxable to CA as he was still a permanent resident of CA when he earned this money. 

Do I need to file a CA return