Massachusetts amount of "Income earned while not a resident"

[jdxray]

I am filing a part year resident return for MA having moved out of state. TT asks the above question but no gives no guidance as to whether this includes earned income, earned income plus other taxable income (such as dividends and taxable interest),  or all income (including state tax exempt income, such as Treasury and MA state municipal interest). Not even sure where I look for this on the MA DOR site. Thanks for any help. 

[CatinaT1]

This is asking if you earned income from working inside Massachusetts while you lived in another state. You don't provide enough information for me to give you further information. I am assuming you lived in Mass for part of the year and moved to another state and started working in the state you moved to.

The "income earned while not a resident" is if you perhaps, moved to RI and continued to physically work in Mass. Then you would have Mass income while being a resident of RI.

[jdxray]

Thank you. I am retired and living on retirement savings and unearned income and have no earned income for 2023. No IRA withdrawals taken and have not reached RMD age. So from your response I would answer with $0 it would seem, as you are indicating that it is asking for EARNED income. I would have thought TT would have input that rather than a non-zero amount since having completed my 1040 I have no earned income. Thanks again.

[CatinaT1]

It wouldn't have to be earned income necessarily, although I don't know of an example where you would have unearned income attributed to Mass while living in another state. Even interest income is attributed to the state of residence when you are credited with it.

Yes, you would answer $0 for this.

[jdxray]

Well, now I am confused. I moved out of state during the year. I had some interest and dividend income while I was a MA resident and some while I was a CA resident. EARNED income usually means W2 income. Other taxable  and tax exempt income is reported via 1099s. So, back to my original question- which sources of income is TT asking about? IF investment/interest income is included it would be a non-zero amount.

[CatinaT1]

The interest and dividend income you earned while a MA resident is MA income. The interest and dividend income you earned while a CA resident is CA income. So - you had no MA income earned while a non-resident.

If you provide a screenshot of where you are seeing this question within TurboTax, I could perhaps provide additional insight. 

[jdxray]

Since I do not believe I should have these statuses apply, I am going to use a non-0 number I have calculated. TT needs to omit the word EARNED here as it has a precise tax meaning and investment/dividend/interest income is not it; it should say income from "all taxable sources", or "all sources", or from "work/W2s" to make clear what it wants rather than muddying "earned income" with "income earned." I appreciate your time on the matter.

[CatinaT1 · Accepted solution]

Ok, so this is asking the amount of total income you earned while a non-resident for purposes of determining if you qualify for tax breaks. From your initial question I didn't have this context and assumed the question was in regards to calculating MA taxable income.

You will enter the amount of income you earned while a CA resident.