California non-resident 1099-NEC and 592-B

[knoelle]

My spouse and I are resident in MD and no other state; we file as married filing jointly.

In 2024 I received an award from a CA university which included a monetary component of $8k, for which I received a 1099-NEC and CA form 592-B indicating $560 was withheld as CA state tax.

In TT I am now filing a CA non-resident return, where I am asked to "enter the portion of the following income that you earned while you were a California resident" and it then lists my various income components including the $8k for my award.  

The question is confusing as I have already previously answered questions indicating I am not a CA resident.  Since I am not a CA resident I entered $0 for all my incomes including the $8k.  At this point TT shows a $560 refund due from CA, i.e. the full amount withheld.

This is also confusing, as I would have expected to owe at least some CA tax; https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2020/2020-1031-publication.pdf says: "Nonresidents of California are taxed only on income from California sources."

Should I actually have entered the full $8k rather than $0?

[KrisD15]

Yes, enter 8,000.

That is certainly not the best choice of words, however you should enter the 8,000 from Form 1099-NEC.

The wording should be "enter the portion earned from California sources" but perhaps because they used Form 1099-NEC , (which would not be my choice for reporting an award), the program assumes you were in California in order to earn that 1099-NEC. 

[knoelle]

Ok that makes sense to me.  I did that and it ended up going from a $560 refund to $34 owed (I assume because after factoring in my other income details the calculated tax is higher).

Thank you for the speedy reply and also for providing a possible explanation for what's happening under the hood of TT.