Live in California, sold undeveloped land (not a home) in Michigan; do I have to file a Michigan state tax return?

[ErnieS0 · Accepted solution]

Possibly. Michigan nonresidents should file a tax return if they have Michigan source income, such as a land sale, and owe MI tax, or if their federal income is more than the exemption allowance. The exemption allowance is $4,750 per exemption. Nonresidents must prorate their exemption allowance.

The easiest way to find out is to start MI in TurboTax Online and see whether you owe tax. If you do not, you can delete Michigan before paying for it.

[JimL44]

Thank you for your quick response. I loaded TurboTax 2020 from a CD. Can I still use TurboTax Online to try your suggestion?

[ErnieS0]

Yes. You don't have to pay for TurboTax Online until you are ready to file, so you can try it there for free and just abandon the account. Unfortunately you cannot "upstream" you data from the CD\Desktop to TurboTax Online. so you will have to put in some dummy number.