Hi again. After doing some research at ftb.ca.gov (Franchise Tax Board, CA), I'm sorry to say that I realized that I am just not positive about whether you have to claim YOUR income in CA or not. Both WA and CA are community property states and here is why I am not sure if you would have community property adjustments in CA or not: On the one hand, income of either person, prior to marriage, is and can be for the purpose of filing, separate income. (So that means you only had 6 weeks or so of communal income in WA). On the other hand, CA says "If the spouse earning the CA source income is domiciled in a community property state, community income will be split equally between spouses."
I'm linking a page here to FTB tax help. It's about a 40 min wait if you call by phone or a 4 min wait if you Live chat. After reading, I would feel better if you ask the "horse", if you know what I mean!
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/Timeframes/?WT.mc_id=Contact_Slab_Processing_Times#contact">https://...>
I hope that link is hyperlinked; can't seem to make it hot. If not, if you go to ftb.ca.gov and click on Contact us, you will be routed to the same user friendly page.
Finally, there's a TurboTax page that sort of walks you through how to make the program help you with CP adjustments, etc---if there are any. I'm going to add that link here, too.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901162-married-filing-separately-in-community-property-states">ht...>
Darn, it doesn't seem to hyperlink either. Sorry about that.....don't know why that's happening.
I'm sorry that I don't think I was that much help after all---simply because I'm not sure of one thing. Because both CA and WA are CP states, I recommend that you verify with CA. The other thing you could do is follow the steps in the TT info (#1901162) and see if that walks you through to check and see if there are adjustments, based on your particular circumstances and dates. I have filed MFJ Federal, coupled with MFS for CA (spouse lived in NV at the time). Almost identical circumstances to yours, in that both CA and NV are CP states AND NV has no state income tax. The largest income was the NV one and we filed none of that on the CA MFS return. The CA return was accepted as correct and that was over 3 years ago! I used to do taxes for a living and only rarely came upon CP adjustments.
I'm curious what you find out. If you have a minute, I would love to hear back from you. I still think my original suggestion is correct for you....but you will find out! Good Luck.
Terri
