California travel & income taxes

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Hi there, I am considering travel nursing to California but I do not know how the state income tax works there. I live in Florida and receive a retirement pension form the military. My question is, would ONLY the income earned in Ca. be subject to Ca. state income taxes, or would my retirement pension also be subjected to Ca. state income taxes (if I worked there for only a 13 weeks assignment)?

Thanks in advance

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Basically, only income earned in California is taxed there. But many states, including California, use a percentage based approach to figuring out taxes due (plus different personal exemptions), so it may not be exact per my first sentence. But it is pretty close.

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Hi, and thank you for thebinformation. . A percentage? How much? How does that work? I am still not clear on if they will try to charge me California state taxes on my military pension. If they did it would negate the gains of me working a travel contract there and I would not go. Nobody seems to be abe to answer this one. Any travel nurses out there in California with other sources of income, ie a military pension? Is California ONLY taxing what you earn there on your contract or not? Thanks.

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Thank you!! I tried googling different things and keywords andntried their tax site with no luck. This answers it for me . Much appreciated!

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If you really want to know a more precise number, download CA non-resident tax form for say 2018, assign about $20,000 (or what you believe your W-2 number might be) and fill it out per what your 2018 IRS 1040 says.

But it will boil down to the percentage of CA derived income versus the rest of your income and be very close to exactly as if they just used the single raw number. If I were you, just use your predicted CA income and tax based on the raw number.

By the way, the way the non-resident form works, it is completely irrelevant if you reside in a state with their own income tax or not. If you do reside in a taxed state, you will receive some sort of credit for taxes paid to other states. So you never "lose" by working in a high tax state like California in one way of looking at it. Of course, if you can make the same money in a lower tax state, and come from a lower tax state (like yours with zero state income tax), and housing/food/transportation costs no more, you will "win" in terms of bankable cash after expenses paid money. Which can be a good way to evaluate which assignment really pays the best.

If you come from a high tax state, your choice of assignments makes very little difference due to any difference in state income taxes, your home state math will ensure you pay just as much as if you made the same taxable amount at home.

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Specializes in Taxes....I put RNs into tax strategy plans.
On 5/10/2019 at 8:31 PM, NurseJarheadMedic said:

Hi, and thank you for thebinformation. . A percentage? How much? How does that work? I am still not clear on if they will try to charge me California state taxes on my military pension. If they did it would negate the gains of me working a travel contract there and I would not go. Nobody seems to be abe to answer this one. Any travel nurses out there in California with other sources of income, ie a military pension? Is California ONLY taxing what you earn there on your contract or not? Thanks.

If you keep your residence in Florida they cannot touch your retirement income... in California will most likely be W-2 as opposed to 1099 so they don't have access to your retirement income

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Specializes in ICU, Agency, Travel, Pediatric Home Care, LTAC, Su.

Best thing to do is check with Joe at Travel Tax. Com I think. Over 2 decades he has been amazing at helping travelers with their taxes, he used to travel himself!

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Specializes in Taxes....I put RNs into tax strategy plans.

Why would I check with him

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Specializes in PACU.
On 3/31/2020 at 11:53 AM, KR said:

Best thing to do is check with Joe at Travel Tax. Com I think. Over 2 decades he has been amazing at helping travelers with their taxes, he used to travel himself!

Hi! I’d like to ask what is Joe’s website?

I tried to Google but so many Joe result

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If you try to Google "TravelTax"....

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Just tried, there but not so obvious. Try to Google TravelTax Joseph Smith.

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