I was married in June. I move from NC to CA in July. My husband lived all year in CA. He is active duty military. How do we file state taxes

[melmar9]

My state of residence stayed NC and his is CA

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

It depends.  Your husband is a California resident and will continue to be such until he leaves the military or qualifies to establish a different state of residency and is able to make the change through DFAS by filing form DD 2058.  For 2016, you were a part-year resident of North Carolina and a part-year resident of California.  Now that you have established California residency, you will also continue to maintain that residency because of Military Spouse Residency Rules.  Please see the following FAQ with more information on this:  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3302300

That law will make your state filing easier starting this year (2017), but for your current tax return (2016), it is a bit complicated.  You (the military spouse) are required to file a part-year return for North Carolina (if you earned income in North Carolina) and a part-year return for California.  (If you earned no income in North Carolina, file one return:  California, as married filing joint).

If you do have to file both, what is tricky is that for either North Carolina or California, you have the option to file as Married Filing Separately instead of joint, but it's really complicated to do so.  What will be easier is to file the part-year return for each Married Filing Joint.  Prepare North Carolina first, and make sure only your income you earned in North Carolina is allocated to North Carolina.  Here is an FAQ about what this means:  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/4777389

California will then treat your income as taxable in California all year.  However, you do get a credit for the tax you pay to North Carolina as a credit on your California taxes.

Preparing your returns this way may give you a slightly higher tax than if you prepare the state returns separately.  The ease may well be worth the extra money.  However, if you do wish to prepare the state returns separately, you may do so.  Here is an FAQ that can guide you:  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3301995