Closest Connection Test

Moving to California After a Liquidity Event: A New FTB Case Highlights All the Mistakes Nonresidents Can Make

Published on: January 15, 2023 | by Chris Manes

The Case

A recent case from California’s Office of Tax Appeals brings some clarity to how strictly California dates a change of residency for income tax purposes when a nonresident claims to have moved to California shortly after a liquidity event. The case, Appeal of Housman, OTA Case No. 18010200 (November 2022), in some ways is the flipside of Appeal of J. Bracamonte, a case involving a resident who claimed to move to another state shortly after a stock sale. Bracamonte is discussed in detail in this article. Both cases went badly for the taxpayers, and for many of the same reasons: failure to plan, failure to keep residency related records, establishing or retaining superior living accommodations in California, spending more time in the state than in their home jurisdiction during the year at issue.

Overview: The Importance of Timing

As discussed in the Bracamonte article, changing residency from California is binary: it happens on a specific date. Indeed, the date has to be reported on Schedule CA of the 540NR “part-year” return, which exiting taxpayers, with few exceptions, have to file for the year they move. The converse is also true for nonresidents moving to California. Schedule CA of the part-year return requires those taxpayers to disclose the date they become California residents. Continue reading

California’s 4600 Notice “Request For Tax Return” – The Definitive Guide for Nonresidents

Published on: July 20, 2021 | by Chris Manes

The Issue

Nonresidents who own vacation homes, business interests, financial accounts, or have other significant contacts in California can receive a notice from the Franchise Tax Board, California’s tax enforcement agency, demanding they file a tax return or explain why they aren’t required to. The official notice number is 4600 (you can find the designation on the lower left bottom of the Notice). Hence the name, “4600 Notice.” It’s also called a “Request for Tax Return,” since the verbiage has appeared in bold on the Notice since about 2017. If a nonresident owns a second home or uses some other address in California, the Notice is often mailed there (which can be a problem if it’s an unoccupied vacation home without mail forwarding, since the deadline for responding may be missed before the recipient even knows the Notice has arrived). But it can also be sent to their out-of-state address. Nonresidents who receive the Notice are often perplexed and concerned about why they received the Notice, and how they are supposed to respond. This article clarifies what the Notice is about, the risk it poses, and the options nonresidents have for responding. Continue reading

Guidelines for Determining California Residency: A Primer for Serious Snowbirds

Published on: September 1, 2017 | by Chris Manes

Seasonal Visitors to California and Residency Anxiety

Out-of-state visitors who own vacation homes in California or otherwise spend significant time here on a seasonal basis (traditionally known as “snowbirds” because the season is inevitably winter) are often anxious about their residency status. There’s good reason to be. California rules for determining residency are notoriously difficult to grasp. It’s altogether possible for the innocent actions of a nonresident to trigger a residency audit. And sometimes the audit has a bad outcome, with tax consequences that bite. Let’s go over the basics of how California determines residency for tax purposes. They can be confusing, and sometimes brutal.

How Residents And Nonresidents Are Taxed

California residents are subject to California state income tax on all income regardless where earned. It doesn’t matter what or where the source. If a California resident derives income from investments in Saudi Arabia or from pensions accrued while working out-of-state, California will tax that income. The resident may qualify for a credit for paying taxes to other states, but the default rule is, a resident’s global income is subject to California income tax. Period. With a top bracket rate that is currently the highest in the nation, California residency comes with a significant tax impact.

In contrast, nonresidents are only subject to California state income tax on their “California-source” income. That may be zero or it may be significant. California-source income takes many forms, some obvious, some more subtle. It could be rents derived from California real estate or income from business operations or wages for performing temporary work in-state (obvious). Or it could be a portion of the sales proceeds attributed to a noncompete clause when a founder sells his California business, or the gain from non-statutory stock options vested while the employee worked in California (not obvious). To celebrity name drop, when LeBron James, an Ohio resident, used to play the Lakers at Staples Center for the Cleveland Cavaliers, he paid California taxes on the income he made on game night, which in his case was no small amount. [By the way, now that James signed with the Lakers, he has a different problem: whether he can work for a California employer, train and practice here for a significant part of the year, and still remain a nonresident – the answer is yes, but that’s a different analysis (see, “Nonresidents Working Remotely for California Businesses: How to Take Paul Newman’s ‘The Sting’ Out of Your Taxes“).

So, the stakes can be high when determining whether a taxpayer is a California resident or not.