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I am an international student and was working for a company for my summer internship (June to Sept) in Minnesota and hence was taxed as per minnesota.For my fall(Sept-Dec) I returned to california and worked remotely but I was tax as per Minnesota only .My W2 shows only MN tax as I have not had any tax on california (I was living in california during the fall and worked from home) ,so for tax returns what should I do .My company wont generate a new W2 as they have all my taxes given to MN .And my tax consultant said that I should also have California tax as I stayed in california.Now I am highly confused and worried.

To brief: 1)Worked June-sept in MN and was tax for MN

2)Move on Sept and worked till Dec in CA for the same company and was tax as per MN as team was in MN

3)W2 has only one state noted

4)Tax consultant says he doesnt know this situation .

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  • If you are working remotely (and the company doesn't have a presence in California), aren't you still legally working in Minnesota? Certainly when I was in a similar situation - living in no-state-tax Nevada, but working remotely for a California company - California hit me up for non-resident income tax.
    – jamesqf
    Mar 12, 2016 at 18:02
  • So if i File only for MN tax returns would it be fine ?
    – arpit joshi
    Mar 12, 2016 at 21:44
  • I don't know for sure, as I'm no expert. But from my own experience, being in a state just for the purpose of education does not make you a resident of that state, and working remotely for a company in state X means you earn the money in that state. What I'd suggest is that you ask the international student office at your school, as they've probably seen this situation before. A random "tax consultant" probably just deals with US citizens who can't/won't do their own taxes.
    – jamesqf
    Mar 13, 2016 at 18:38

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Change the tax consultant.

The employer should have withheld taxes for CA during the period when you were working from CA, but I can understand why they would want to "not know" that you moved. CA is a very expensive State to have employees in for out of state companies.

You should file the tax returns in both MN and CA, and claim refund from MN for the period when you were not working there, and pay taxes to CA for the period you were working there. You'll have to calculate exactly what portion of the salary is attributed to what State, probably prorating the paycheck for the time when you moved.

Let the CA FTB deal with the employer, not your problem.

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  • So first I should file for MN ,and also tell CA FTB about my case ? as I am a first time tax payer and first time working in USA and hence scared
    – arpit joshi
    Mar 12, 2016 at 8:35
  • @asj177 you should file both. Nothing to be scared about, just paperwork. You'll probably have to pay some tax with the filing, since the CA taxes are probably higher than MN, but on the other hand you'll get a check from MN for a significant portion of what your employer withheld. You did nothing wrong.
    – littleadv
    Mar 12, 2016 at 8:41

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