I lived in Georgia at the beginning of the year, moved to another state, then moved back to Georgia. Can I show two different periods of residency in Georgia?

[Greg321]

TurboTax is only allowing me to show one period of residency, so it either looks like I moved out of state permanently or that I have only lived in the state for three months.

[JotikaT2]

No, you will need to enter the information in the My info section of the program but use the address as of the end of the year as being Georgia.  You will put the period you lived in the other state here as well.

In the My Info section of TurboTax, confirm that you have entered the correct state information: 

1. Click "Edit" to the right of your name 
2. Confirm your input under #2 "Tell us the state(s) you lived in" 
3. Confirm the rest of the state-specific questions here as well including the "previous state of residence" and "date you became a resident" of the state noted 
4. Do the same for your spouse if you are married filing jointly. 

You will be able to edit your state tax return by doing the following:

1. Select State in the black panel on the left after signing into TurboTax.
2. Select Edit to the right of your state on the screen titled Status of your state returns and go over the state again. 

When you prepare/review your Georgia return in the State section of the program, you can enter your specific dates on the page titled Dates of Georgia Residency. 

[Greg321]

Thanks. This is very useful, but I can't figure out how to enter that I lived in Georgia twice. On the Georgia state page, it only seems to allow one period of residence. On the My Info page, it asks for previous state of residence, but only once -- it does not ask whether I lived in California at the start of the year.

On the California tax page, it allows me to choose start and end dates, but for Georgia I can only figure out how to show that I lived there for the first five months or the last four months of the year but not both

[SteamTrain]

It is not  technically possible to do that.....never has been possible to do that in software for many many years.  Your situation is one in which the time in CA needs to be treated strictly as being there as a non-resident.  Situations that are trickier are those where you might have lived&worked in CA for 6 months or more...

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BUT...for your situation the few months you spend in CA were really not enough to truly establish yourself as a CA resident, and you need to treat the CA time strictly as being there as a "Non-resident"

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In the software , on the My Info page, you would indicate you were a GA resident at the end of the year, and you DID NOT move to GA from any other state.  Thus, you would file GA as a full-year resident.

IF you worked in CA while there, then at the bottom of the My Info page, you would indicate CA as an Other State that you worked in......and prepare the CA non-resident tax return first, and GA-Resident last.

GA would calculate a tax based on ALL your income for the year, and allow you to take a credit for the taxes that CA kept for working in CA.   (which is why the CA non-resident tax return has to be filled in before GA) .  But if you didn't work in CA, then no CA tax return would be required.

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[Greg321]

Thanks so much. Maybe this will work. 

I was planning to live there, however, and I withdrew money from a retirement account while living there. The retirement account company recorded me as living there when I withdrew the money. It did not withhold taxes, but it did record the money as being distributed while I was a California resident. Does that mean I need to file California state taxes?

[HelenC12]

Yes, Retirement income is entered in the state you lived in, when you received the checks/payments. If you were a resident of CA and the retirement funds were distributed to you, while you were in CA, yes, you'll have to file that as CA income. 

• See How do I file a part-year state return? and How do I allocate (split) income for a part-year state return?

Note: California fully taxes income from retirement accounts and pensions at some of the highest state income tax rates in the country. Source: SmartAsset

[Greg321]

Thanks very much.