Tax Tips Understanding Those Part-Year Returns Read the Article Open Share Drawer Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Written by TurboTaxLee Published Mar 28, 2008 3 min read In the Live Community, we are seeing a lot of questions about part-year and nonresident returns. In this blog, I’m going to talk about part-year returns. Since there are many questions on the Oregon part-year return, I’m using Oregon as an example. Just remember that not all states handle their part-year return the same as Oregon but most follow a similar pattern. Before we get started on the "tax and form" theory, I want to be sure you understand how TurboTax determines that you will be filing a part-year return. As you enter the Personal Info for your 1040 return, be sure you indicate "Yes, I was a resident of more than one state in 2007." And on the "Tell Us About Your Move" screen, enter the date you became resident of your current state and name the state you moved from. With this information, TurboTax determines if you will be answering state questions for a resident or a part-year resident return. For Oregon, the part-year return is Form 40P. Part-year returns are filed when you’ve lived in more than one state during a year. Let’s say you lived in California for 9 months and then moved to Oregon on October 1st. Most states will have a two column form. In one column TurboTax enters your income as if you were a resident of that state all year. The other column TurboTax enters the portion of income that was earned or received while you were a resident of that state. Earned income (wages/self employed income): The income you "earned" while you lived in California is taxed in CA and earned in Oregon is taxed in Oregon. For an Oregon part year return, if the Oregon wages are not separately stated on your W-2 then you can compute the Oregon wages by a ratio of days worked in Oregon over total days worked for the year. Unearned income (such as interest, dividends, alimony, stock sales, and social security benefits): Unearned income is taxed by the state that you lived in when you received the unearned income. If you sold a stock on April 30, 2007, then that sale is reported on your California return. If you received interest income from your California bank but closed the account when you moved, then that interest goes on the California return. With those two columns,the state return has your total income for the year and the portion of that income that belongs to that state. Different states will handle adjustments/ deductions/ exemptions in different ways. We’ll skip that area. Now we’re down to figuring out the taxes. Most states will first determine the tax as if you were a resident of that state for all year. Let’s say that tax is $5,000. Then there will be a calculation to determine the percentage of that state’s income compared to all of your income for the year. Sometime it’s the part year taxable income divided by full year taxable income. The Oregon percentage is determined by dividing Oregon (modified) adjusted gross income by (modified) federal adjusted gross income. The percentage shows up on line 39 on Form 40P. If your federal adjusted gross income for all of 2007 is $50,000 and $10,000 of that is considered Oregon’s income then your percentage would be $10,000/ $50,000 or 20%. The next step is to multiply that full year resident tax ($5,000) by 20% and the tax you will pay to Oregon is $1,000. Whew! Ain’t state taxes fun! I know this blog has been long and tedious but I do hope it answers some of your questions on your part-year returns. Previous Post I work in one state and live in another state.… Next Post Unemployed Doesn't Mean Untaxed Written by TurboTaxLee More from TurboTaxLee 9 responses to “Understanding Those Part-Year Returns” CAN I PREPARE PART-YEAR RETURNS FOR CA AND ID ON TURBO TAX? SIMPLE, I KNOW, BUT THE ANSWER ISN’T OBVIOUS AND I AM SICK OF LOOKING (I GAVE UP ON COMPLETE TAX) THANK YOU! CAROLYN Reply if i was for 40 days out of the States as army contractor and I got my salary from the governmet. can I be a nonresident for that time, and count my salary for that time as a foriegn income. thank you Reply I have the same situation as Erin and Vito. I am a part year resident of both CA and IL while my husband stayed in IL and did not make any income in CA in 2009. Please advise how we should best file? Married filing separately or jointly? Does Turbo Tax support this scenario? Thank you!! Reply I think I’m going to have to mail my part-year state return. I received a taxable fellowship while in State #1 which equals $12K for which I did not receive any forms for. I received another taxable scholarship for $2000 for which I received a 1099-MISC. I did not receive any of these fellowships in State #2. Turbo Tax calculates my income for State #1 as $2000 when it should be $14K. Therefore, my taxes for State #1 are incorrect because TT does not allow for entering the state for that 12K fellowship. I used to swear by TT, but now I’m a bit disappointed. Reply We have a DIFFERENT problem. We do our kids returns…therefore NC is the FREE state and we bought MD. After completing the Federal, we have TWO state returns. Turbotax then calculates a CREDIT from the MD return (even though NO income or MD address was used) and applies it to NC. How do you get RID of an unwanted State return when you are only doing ONE State and ONE Federal return? Reply I have the same issue as Erin, posted Feb 20, 2010. My wife is a full year resident of AZ, while I am a part year resident of AZ and part year in MD. I just spent several days completing my Federal return filing jointly, only to encounter this glitch in the Turbo Tax state program. Turbo Tax wants me to rework my Federal return as married, filing separately, but use this just for state filing purposes. It would take several days of work to recreate this Federal return as filing separately. I would need three Federal returns using this method! Is there a better solution? Thanks Reply It is clear to me how part-year resident returns work (with income allocation) if you move as a family. In my case, I was a full-year resident in one state, and my husband a party-year resident in my state, as well as a part-year resident in a second state (he moved before the family followed). Wife: full-year resident in CA in 2009 Husband: part-year resident in CA in 2009 Jan-Oct part-year resident in CT in 2009 Nov-Dec How do we best file? Married Filing Jointly? Married Filing Separately? Can Turbo tax model the scenarios and determine the best filing status for me? Reply Is a student (who retains her permanent residence at home) and earns money through a work-study program at school a part-year resident of both states? Or a resident of the home state and a non-resident of the school’s state? Does she have to file in both states? Reply As the person from April 7th states, I have the same problem. The W2 is correct and lists the partial earned income for the state (partial year resident). However, this does not transfer to the state form. It still seems to be calculating the state tax for the entire year. I think a bug in the program. Maybe doing something wrong? 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CAN I PREPARE PART-YEAR RETURNS FOR CA AND ID ON TURBO TAX? SIMPLE, I KNOW, BUT THE ANSWER ISN’T OBVIOUS AND I AM SICK OF LOOKING (I GAVE UP ON COMPLETE TAX) THANK YOU! CAROLYN Reply
if i was for 40 days out of the States as army contractor and I got my salary from the governmet. can I be a nonresident for that time, and count my salary for that time as a foriegn income. thank you Reply
I have the same situation as Erin and Vito. I am a part year resident of both CA and IL while my husband stayed in IL and did not make any income in CA in 2009. Please advise how we should best file? Married filing separately or jointly? Does Turbo Tax support this scenario? Thank you!! Reply
I think I’m going to have to mail my part-year state return. I received a taxable fellowship while in State #1 which equals $12K for which I did not receive any forms for. I received another taxable scholarship for $2000 for which I received a 1099-MISC. I did not receive any of these fellowships in State #2. Turbo Tax calculates my income for State #1 as $2000 when it should be $14K. Therefore, my taxes for State #1 are incorrect because TT does not allow for entering the state for that 12K fellowship. I used to swear by TT, but now I’m a bit disappointed. Reply
We have a DIFFERENT problem. We do our kids returns…therefore NC is the FREE state and we bought MD. After completing the Federal, we have TWO state returns. Turbotax then calculates a CREDIT from the MD return (even though NO income or MD address was used) and applies it to NC. How do you get RID of an unwanted State return when you are only doing ONE State and ONE Federal return? Reply
I have the same issue as Erin, posted Feb 20, 2010. My wife is a full year resident of AZ, while I am a part year resident of AZ and part year in MD. I just spent several days completing my Federal return filing jointly, only to encounter this glitch in the Turbo Tax state program. Turbo Tax wants me to rework my Federal return as married, filing separately, but use this just for state filing purposes. It would take several days of work to recreate this Federal return as filing separately. I would need three Federal returns using this method! Is there a better solution? Thanks Reply
It is clear to me how part-year resident returns work (with income allocation) if you move as a family. In my case, I was a full-year resident in one state, and my husband a party-year resident in my state, as well as a part-year resident in a second state (he moved before the family followed). Wife: full-year resident in CA in 2009 Husband: part-year resident in CA in 2009 Jan-Oct part-year resident in CT in 2009 Nov-Dec How do we best file? Married Filing Jointly? Married Filing Separately? Can Turbo tax model the scenarios and determine the best filing status for me? Reply
Is a student (who retains her permanent residence at home) and earns money through a work-study program at school a part-year resident of both states? Or a resident of the home state and a non-resident of the school’s state? Does she have to file in both states? Reply
As the person from April 7th states, I have the same problem. The W2 is correct and lists the partial earned income for the state (partial year resident). However, this does not transfer to the state form. It still seems to be calculating the state tax for the entire year. I think a bug in the program. Maybe doing something wrong? Reply