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Other Adjustments |
| There are so many other deductions which cannot be covered in this short tax course. If you have any other adjustments for which you can take a federal deduction but not for California, you enter it on your California Schedule CA to either remove it from California or to add to California. Once you review Schedule CA, you will become familiar with where every possible deduction goes. Sometimes federal tax law allows a deduction for a natural disaster such as the recent Philippines Disaster Contribution for which California has no such deduction, you need to know where on your California tax return to make the adjustment. These types of other adjustments usually go on your California Schedule CA, line 41. Every time you have a certain deduction or credit for federal tax purposes, you should always find out if California conforms to the federal deduction or credit and if not, you must make adjustments accordingly. |
| Other Basic California Tax Items |
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If two or more taxpayers including a parent claim the same child as a qualifying child for a particular tax year, the person shall be treated as the qualifying child of the taxpayer who is the parent. However, if none of the taxpayers is the parent, then the taxpayer with the highest adjusted gross income for taxable year shall be able to claim the head of household filing status. |
| The head of household filing status is probably the filing status with which the state of California is most preoccupied. This is for good reason too. This is the most abused filing status of all the filing statuses. Many people are too liberal when it comes to applying the Head of household rules for either federal or California tax filings. To qualify for the head of household filing status benefit, you must have a child whom qualifies you to claim the head of household filing status. You must be unmarried or be considered unmarried on the last day of the year. You must have paid for more than half the cost of keeping up a home. Furthermore, you must have a child who lived with you for more than half of the year or a qualifying person such as your parent who does not need to live with you. People seek to receive the lowest possible tax rate available to them. If you qualify for the head of household filing status, you rate will be lower than that of a single or married filing separate taxpayer. Also, taxpayers who use the head of household filing status qualify for certain credits that they may not qualify for if they are single or if they file married filing separate. Married taxpayers want to file head of household instead of married to get credits offered by federal. |
| To be head of household, you must provide more than half of a person's total support during the calendar year to meet the support test. This is in addition to the other requirements which you must meet. To determine whether you have provided more than half the support compare the amount you contributed for the person's support to the entire amount of support the person received from all sources. |
| One of the challenges of qualifying for the head of household filing status is meeting the support test. To meet the support test, you must have provided more than half the cost of the upkeep of a home for your qualifying child or relative. The child or qualifying relative must also be your dependent, therefore the support test usually goes both ways. You must have provided more than half the total support of a home for the qualifying person and usually, you must also have provided more than half of the support for the qualifying relative or child in order for them to be your dependent. Support test for a qualifying child and a qualifying relative are a bit different but very similar. So everything can be as easy as having a child living with you all year and your being the only provider for the home in which that child lives. |
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| Revised: 07/09/15 |
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