Does active duty military pay CA state tax if not resident of CA?

[MaryK1]

No, under the SCRA, an active duty servicemember retains their state domicile when joining the military and only pays tax on their active duty pay in the resident state.  If you do not have any CA income other than the active duty pay, you do not have to file a CA return.

[doynerdc]

It would appear they've started to try to shake-down military folks will tax bills for their non-resident military income.

[joerackovan]

I also just received a notice as well. Probably some kind of automated system of theirs. Looks like I'll have to wait until after Veterans Day to call them and clear it up. Hope they don't expect us to actually pay it being that it's illegal taxation. Were you able to resolve it fairly painlessly ?

[Critter]

The fact that a non-resident independent contractor who provides services to CA businesses must pay CA taxes on that income is a very recent development, and is due to two court decisions made this year (2019) - the most recent of which was a month ago. 

Thus it's very possible that you may run across older answers on this board that were correct at the time, but are correct no longer.  

You can read the details of those court decisions here:  https://www.coblentzlaw.com/california-office-of-tax-appeals-gives-precedential-authority-to-bindley...

In May 2019, the California Office of Tax Appeals ruled very recently that income from California-based clients is taxable as California source income.

For some discussion:

https://www.coblentzlaw.com/california-office-of-tax-appeals-gives-precedential-authority-to-bindley...

https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/95243/is-self-employed-work-performed-out-of-state-for-a-c...

[joerackovan]

Right, an independent contractor makes sense. I was an active duty service member on orders to Camp Pendleton CA. I was always domiciled in Oregon. So I’m pretty sure I’m covered under the Federal Service Member Relief Act