topic Form 540NR (Never Lived In CA) in State tax filing

Form 540NR (Never Lived In CA)

tennessee_drummer — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:21:28 GMT

I have never lived in California, however, my employer reported my income as a California resident during the year 2018. I was advised to submit Form 540NR. However, I'm unsure how to fill out the California Taxable Income section.

Box 16 on my W2 shows $0. I enter that in Line 12 within the 540NR short form but I'm not sure this is correct.

Who could I contact to make sure this is submitted correctly? The instructions provided are not clear as they use terms I'm unfamiliar with.

Re: Form 540NR (Never Lived In CA)

LenaH — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:01:44 GMT

If you have never lived in California and did not earn money in California in 2018, then you would have zero sourced California taxable income. You are correct and should have zero on Line 12 on Form 540NR.

Re: Form 540NR (Never Lived In CA)

tennessee_drummer — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:57:43 GMT

Thank you LenaH for the super quick response.

Side 2 of the 2018 540NR Short Form is almost left blank, with the exception of line 36. I input '1' since Line 31 and 19 are the same numeric value.

For line 121, asking for amount owed, I input 0. I have a feeling they may reject that since they sent me a notice asking me to pay state tax for 2018. Is this sounding correct on my end?

I worked for the same employer (Located in Irvine, California) through 2017 - 2022 and according to the CA FTB, the year 2018 was the only year they have stating I owe tax. Super confusing!

Re: Form 540NR (Never Lived In CA)

MaryK4 — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 03:04:52 GMT

You should submit the nonresident return with the zero California income. At the very worst, they would challenge your California residency, at which point you would have to provide documentation that you lived in another state- you may want to include a note with the return to that effect. @tennessee_drummer