state tax michigan

[rajpbg]

Hi,

I previously mentioned that I received income from a farm land that I had in a foreign country. AS suggested I filed it in my federal tax return under rental property. Now I am filing taxes for the state of Michigan and in that it asks for Out-of-State Business income or loss. In turbotax specifically, it says, " on your federal return did you report income or losses from business, rental or royal property which you operated entirely out of state?" Since this income from farmland was added in rental property in my federal taxes and was from a foreign country, Should I mention it as yes in my Michigan taxes? Doing so is lowering the taxes that I owe to the state of Michigan and I don't understand why that would be the case. Or does the phrase, "out of state" means states within US only.

[ThomasM125]

You should answer "yes" to that question. You do not have to pay tax in Michigan on income from the rental activity since it was not located in Michigan. "Out of State" simply means the business is not located in Michigan.

You may need to investigate to see if you need to pay tax on the income in the foreign country though.