I lived in California throughout 2020 and permanently changed my address halfway through the year. How do I file?

[faith_dare]

All income from CA despite residency in another state for most of the year

[MayaD]

We'd love to help you complete your tax return, but need more information. Can you please clarify your question?

Did you live in CA and in another state in 2020? 

If you did, you need to file Part-year resident return for both states and allocate your income between the two states.

Please check the instructions for How to file a Part-Year Resident Return? 

[TomD8]

If your domicile was in CA all of 2020, and all your income was earned in CA, then you file as a full-year resident of CA.

You find CA's definition of "domicile" on page 10 of this reference:

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2020/2020-1031-publication.pdf

Your residency for tax purposes is determined by where you actually live, not by your mailing address.

[faith_dare]

Thank you for your replies! I can clarify! 

My address on my driver's license was another state despite living and working in CA throughout all 2020. So all income was in CA. Once I realized I will most likely end up living in CA, I changed my driver's license (and other things) to my CA address. Since I did not live in my previous residency at all in 2020, I believe I can file as a full-resident. But I'm not sure.

[JotikaT2 · Accepted solution]

That is correct.  Based upon your replies above, your intent was to permanently move to California.  Therefore, you can file as a full-year California resident even though your driver's license was not updated immediately. 

As long as you can show your intent and you did not earn any money in your prior state of residence, you will only need to file one state return.

How do I file if I moved to another state