Living in Massachusetts but working remotely for a company in California

[ataxj]

Hi,

My wife and I lived in Massachusetts for all of 2020. I worked for an employer in MA from Jan to April, and worked remotely for an employer in CA from May to December. My wife has been employed in MA only. All of our taxes have been withheld by MA (none by CA). I only spent 3 days total in CA in February 2020 for vacation (that was before I started work with the CA employer).

I am not confident of my answers to two questions on Turbotax and I have been reading contradicting references online. Here are the two questions:

1-  Did either of you make money in any other states?

Some references state that since my services have all been in MA, I should select No for the question above. Other references online state otherwise because my income is from a California employer.

2-How much of the total income did you earn in California? 

Again, some references online state that even though my employer is from California, I should select that all of my income was earned in MA because my services were done there. But I am not sure because part of this income was from a CA employer.

In summary, answering the questions above has great implications as to whether I owe CA money and MA has to refund me all my withheld taxes, or whether I should simply be getting a refund from MA. Your help with answers to the above questions are very much appreciated. Happy to provide more info!

[DanielV01]

You are correct to all of the above.  California does not tax you even though you were telecommuting on behalf of a California company.  Since Massachusetts this year decided to adopt a "convenience" principle, if you were living in California and telecommuting for a Massachusetts company, you would have a tax liability there.  But you don't have one for California.

[ataxj]

Thank you very much for your quick and helpful reply. I am still not fully clear on the convenience principle because I live in MA and work remotely in CA, not the other way around.

Given this information, it seems that the answers to the below questions of Turbotax for my case are the following:

1-  Did either of you make money in any other states?

No

2-How much of the total income did you earn in California? 

None

Just want to confirm, because this may mean that I do not have to file non-resident state tax to CA according to the software.

Thanks a lot!!

[DanielV01]

That is what you answer to each of the two questions.  You did not make any income in any other state other than Massachusetts, because you were not physically present in California.