taxes & sojourning in CA

[shylee]

NB: My apologies. I inadvertently posted this to the immigration forum.


Greetings,

I have been reading old postings to this forum, trying to get a handle on this. I think I have, but would appreciate confirmation.

Situation:
My husband and I will be landing in CA in late June or early July. We are both US university professors and will continue to earn US income for the next year. I will be returning to the US in August to teach until Jan or June 2008. He will remain in CA on sabbatical until May 2008. He will also be receiving funding (likely a scholarship, not a teaching salary) from a CA university as he will be enrolled in a graduate program for the year.

Questions:

1) Do we both have to file in CA as well as in US?
I think that I will not have to, since I will be there well under the 183 day rule, i.e. I will qualify as a sojourner for this year, and the only residential tie I will have is my PRC. While he is also like to be in CA for fewer than 183 days (given occasional visits to the US) it seems to me that he may well have to file even so. Certainly he will have more residential ties (such as an actual residence) than I.

2) If he does have to file and I do not, would it be best for us to file separately in the US? Or can we file jointly in the US while he alone files in CA?

Many thanks for your time and advice,
Shylee

[nelsona]

It would not appear that you will be taxable at all in Canada. Your husband wil, as a newcomer from the day he ets a place to live. He will report all world income from june/July onward, until he ceases residency.

You will both report all income in US as well, of course. There will be a series of rather complex foreign tax credits to be taken on both 1040 and Cdn return. There may or may not be some advantage to filing separately in uS, you could only determine this at tax time.


At first glance, while filing separately may help hubby a little (maybe) i don't see how this would outweigh the extra tax you are bound to pay filing MFS.