CA form 3800 with non resident parents

[WilliamG11]

I'm helping my son with his taxes. We are all DC residents and I am claiming him as a dependent. My son attends school in CA and had income while he was there, including some income from a research stipend. The stipend is a taxable scholarship and I believe it's treated as unearned income. As a result my son has to file a non resident California return, including form 3800. He also has to file federal form 8615.

When filling out the information for form 3800, TT asks for information from the parents' CA return. We (the parents) aren't CA residents, had no income in California, and do not file a CA return. We have no connection to CA at all. So whenever TT asks for our information from form 540, do I just enter zero? Do I leave it blank?

If the answer is to enter zero, as I suspect, then I have a follow up question: Since we (the parents) don't make money in CA, aren't residents there and don't file a CA return, could filing my son's 3380 with zeroes for our information have any possible implications for us in CA?

[RobertB4444 · Accepted solution]

@Williamd11  You will put zeroes in the spaces for the parents return.  I am unaware how there could be any negative effects from this since that is an accurate representation of your California tax return.

[WilliamG11]

So I entered all zeroes for the parent info in the 3800 form but TT says this form results in an additional 29 in ca taxes. My understanding is that since the parents have no income or taxes on CA this form should not result in additional taxes. Is this an error in TT or am i missing something? 

[rjabara]

Hello, I have the same issue.  Resident of Maryland, dependent daughter in CA with income from moving to the state for 3 months of the year.  On her CA tax return, form 3800 requires "Parents" AGI from CA540.  We do not file in California.  Are we sure that filling the form in with 0's is the best solution for this?

Thank you.