Is "tax liability" same as "tax refund" or "taxable income"?

[ebrahimm777]

I'm filing my CA state tax, and Turbotax is asking me "Need to Make Electronic Payments Based on a Prior Year?", for which I'm a bit confused. It says such mandatory electronic payment applies if I fall into one of these two categories

• Make an estimated tax payment or extension payment greater than $20,000 for a taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2009.
• File an original return with a tax liability greater than $80,000 for taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2009.

I filed my first CA state tax return in 2019 electronically using Turbotax, and I got about $900 refund from CA. I didn't do any estimated tax or tax extension, so first case does not apply to me. But I'm not sure about "tax liability" in the second case. My "taxable income" in 2019 was greater than $80K; is this the same as "tax liability"? Or, should I consider "tax liability" to be the $900 "tax refund" that I claimed in my 2019 return (or the federal tax refund I got in 2019), or is it the total tax amount (around $30k) I paid in 2019, or is it totally something different? I'm quite confused here... Would appreciate some expert help for this

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

Your tax liability is the income tax as listed your state tax return. On a California individual tax return, form 540, it would be the amount listed on line 65 "Total Tax."