CA FTB Change of residence

See, for example:

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So some of this will depend on when you actually made this move.

were CA residents until then.

So you should file a Part-Year Resident Form 540NR for CA. IIRC FL does not have an income tax, so I'm guessing there isn't anything to file there. The part-year resident form will have places where you fill in the dates of residence, including when you left California. (California uses the same form for non-residents and part-year residents)

Continuing to own a home in California can complicate attempts to convince the FTB that you have moved, but with sufficient evidence it should work. You might want to transfer the utilities on the home to your son's name, though.

Thank you for your response.

Actually I was referring to year 2019.

How do we go about informing the CA FTB of our change of residence for 2019?

The previous answers still apply, just move them forward one year. You will file a part-year CA return for 2019. If CA has a change of address form similar to the IRS Form 8822, you may want to file that as soon as you establish a FL address. The change of address form won't officially change your tax residency, but will signal your intention to officially change your residency.

Ira Smilovitz, EA

FTB 3533 to change mailing address. As stated, the change is for communicating only. It has nothing to do where one is domiciled.

"However, we have not sold the CA home yet. Our son is temporarily living in the CA home. So currently we are paying RE taxes and other expenses like electricity, internet etc on both properties. We will visit CA from time to time to see our son and make sure all is well with the CA home till we sell it maybe in a couple of years."

If I were you, I wouldn't wait "a couple of years" to acquaint myself with the rules of IRC Section 121 and the "two-out-of-five-years" rules for escaping income tax on up to a half-million dollars of gain from the sale of a principal residence... :)

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If you actually moved to FL in 2018, then you would file a Part-Year Resident tax form for the 2018 tax year. (This is, right about now). The Part-Year resident form would show that your residency ended sometime in November 2018.

If you don't have any income from CA during 2019, I would think you don't have anything to file. You would have already informed the CA FTB of your change of residence when you filed the Part-Year return.

I suppose you *could* file a non-resident return for 2019, but unless there was some CA income to deal with, it would seem like it would be all zeroes, so I'm not sure if I see the point. Perhaps one of the actual tax experts might be able to comment on whether having additional non-resident returns accepted would help if there were a residence audit.

I still would transfer the utility bills to your son's name, though.

Filing a non-resident return is often the trigger for a residency audit if the state has reason to suspect that residency hasn't changed.

Ira Smilovitz, EA