Mixed residents CA and TN + spouse nonresident CA

[Sadi]

I’m a resident in CA (community property) and spouse is in TN (non community property, no state tax) and he is a nonresident in CA for the entire year. Can we joint file the federal tax and married separate file the CA state tax? 

[MaryK4]

No, California requires you to file your state tax return using the same filing status as on the federal, unless one spouse is active duty military or the nonresident spouse had no California source income.  In most cases, one half of the CA spouse's income is community property so the nonresident spouse does have California source income.    See Community property.