College Student and New Jersey Taxes

[Gpa2022]

My son is a CA resident who is going to college in New Jersey.  He has income from a tutoring job and from performing research.  Most of his state taxes were withheld for CA but a small amount of money was withheld for New Jersey taxes.  His income was less than $10,000 from all sources and he is not required to file in NJ.  I figured that if he is not required to file taxes, then his taxes would be 0 and he would get a small refund.  When I went to complete his taxes for New Jersey his taxes, from the tax table, were greater than the amount withheld.  It was a bit confusing to me on why he doesn't have to file taxes in New Jersey and yet the tax table has a taxable amount for his income.  Assuming it is best just to not file but didn't want to make a mistake.  

[TomD8 · Accepted solution]

You're correct that he's not required to file an NJ tax return if his gross 2023 income from all sources is less than $10,000.  But if NJ taxes were withheld from his pay, then he'd have to file a return in order to get those taxes refunded.  See page 2 here:

https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/current/1040nri.pdf

The same applies to his California return.  His income falls below the California filing threshold, but he'd have to file to obtain a refund of his withheld CA taxes.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/residency-status/index.html