Scenario:
I got married in Sep 2024. My wife worked in California from April 2024 to May 2024 and had income from the state. Before that she was in Illinois but had no income. After May, she moved to Tennessee and is working from there since. I was a Massachusetts resident all year and had no income from California.
We're filing a joint Federal tax return because it gives us the maximum refund. We cannot file state tax jointly for MA since both of us were not residents.
For CA, we can file separately only if one (or both) was non-resident and had no income from "California sources". According to the instructions here.
" If either spouse earned California source income while domiciled in a community property state, the community income will be split equally between the spouses. Both spouses will have California source income and they will not qualify for the nonresident spouse exception."
So its a bit confusing since we were not married when she was in CA and considering the final domicile of both of us during the year, none of us were in a community property state. Or do we consider domicile as CA because that's where she was when the she earned the income?
