Parent tax status is incorrect on CA form 3800, correct on Federal Form 8615

[SpencerF]

Federal tax status for parents on Form 8615 is married filling jointly, on corresponding CA From 3800, qualified widow is checked.  I can't correct it because it is being transferred from somewhere.  From where is this incorrect information being transferred to CA Form 3800?  Is this a bug?

[AmyC · Accepted solution]

No. I recommend going through the CA Credits and Taxes section and edit the entries under Child with Investment Income. That section has the question about your marital status.

When I went through the program, it asked me at both the federal and state level inside the program what the filing status is for the parents for those forms specifically. When I went to Forms Mode, it kept what had been inputted. I used the Home and Business version.

[chester7]

I'm having a similar problem, however, my son (23 years) is filing as independent this year and we are not claiming him as a dependent.  I don't understand why it is forcing us to fill out info on 3800 about his parent's income.  Our info shows as married filling jointly.  If I fill out line 6 and 10 with our income, it shows he owes considerably more than he earned as income in 2019.

(His earned contracting income is only $2550) 

I don't understand why form 8615 is coming up on his return if he is independent.  Maybe it transferred from last year? How do I correct this?

[Anonymous]

I'm experiencing the same problem. I moved out of CA so I am filing 540NR as part-year resident. If I put my total taxable income from my 540NR line 19, it calculates that my son owes a ridiculous amount of taxes, because of course the tax that I owe is not based on my total taxable income but only my California taxable income (504NR line 35). And Turbotax will not let me complete the worksheet for parents filing 540NR. I can enter some fields but the auto-populated ones (all calculations based on my entries) remain blank.

If I enter only my California taxable income, it comes up with a more reasonable number but it is not correct and also not the correct way to complete this form. 

[Rshahrok1]

I can't file my 2021 state taxes cuz it keeps saying my filing status can not be left blank and it's form CA 3800 this year was the first time I have ever filed taxes so I'm confused