Filing 2nd State return

It depends.  As a non-resident of CA, you must pay tax on income from CA sources which include:

• Income from services performed in CA
• Rent collected from real property located in CA
• Income from a CA business, trade, or profession
• Income from the sale/transfer of real property located in CA

To determine if you have a filing requirement as a non-resident of CA, you have to look at all your income. If the $3,000 of income you mentioned above is your total gross (worldwide) income, then you are not required to file a CA non-resident tax return. 

If the $3,000 mentioned above is just your CA adjusted gross income, you need to look at the table on the State of CA, Franchise Tax Board web-site for Part-year resident and nonresident filing requirements to determine if you need to file the non-resident return based on your total gross income (worldwide).

Our FEDERAL gross income including that second state  is $ 1531.00   Our taxable total income on fed 1040 with deductions is 0.

California income total $2,775   before  exemptions or standard  deduction which is more than income   a0

THANK you for replying!!    I really hate to pay for 2nd state on TTax.

M

If your gross income is $1,531 then you would not have to file a federal return (unless you have self-employment income) and you will not have to file a California return.