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Level 2
April 28, 2020
Solved

Which Federal Return to Attach to California NR using Separate Filing Status

  • April 28, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 7 views

Taxpayers filed 2019 Joint Federal Return. Husband is in military, resident of California. Wife lives in New York. Filing a California Non-resident (540NR) , Status Married Filing Separately for husband. Electronic filing requires that I send a copy of the federal return to California. My file includes a "dummy" federal return but it is not being filed since they are filing a joint federal return. Is it OK to send the "dummy" federal return as an attachment to the California return or should I be doing something else?

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Best answer by BobKamman

Is husband domiciled in California, or just stationed there?  Trying to figure out why a separate return would be better, unless he also has non-military California-source income.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2019/2019-1032-publication.pdf

2 replies

sjrcpa
Level 15
April 28, 2020

I would not attach the dummy return since that is not the federal return that got filed. I'd attach the MFJ federal return.

The more I know the more I don’t know.
GregKAuthor
Level 2
April 28, 2020

Thanks, but I'm not sure if I can do that in Lacerte. They're two separate files.

sjrcpa
Level 15
April 28, 2020

You can attach the MFJ as a pdf but I'm guessing it won't efile. I think you have a paper filed return.

The more I know the more I don’t know.
BobKamman
BobKammanAnswer
Level 15
April 29, 2020

Is husband domiciled in California, or just stationed there?  Trying to figure out why a separate return would be better, unless he also has non-military California-source income.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2019/2019-1032-publication.pdf