Re: College Student and New Jersey Taxes

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 3, 2024
1 reply
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My son is a CA resident who is going to college in New Jersey. He has income from a tutoring job and from performing research. Most of his state taxes were withheld for CA but a small amount of money was withheld for New Jersey taxes. His income was less than $10,000 from all sources and he is not required to file in NJ. I figured that if he is not required to file taxes, then his taxes would be 0 and he would get a small refund. When I went to complete his taxes for New Jersey his taxes, from the tax table, were greater than the amount withheld. It was a bit confusing to me on why he doesn't have to file taxes in New Jersey and yet the tax table has a taxable amount for his income. Assuming it is best just to not file but didn't want to make a mistake.

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Best answer by TomD8

You're correct that he's not required to file an NJ tax return if his gross 2023 income from all sources is less than $10,000. But if NJ taxes were withheld from his pay, then he'd have to file a return in order to get those taxes refunded. See page 2 here:

https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/current/1040nri.pdf

The same applies to his California return. His income falls below the California filing threshold, but he'd have to file to obtain a refund of his withheld CA taxes.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/residency-status/index.html

TomD8Answer

Employee

https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/current/1040nri.pdf

The same applies to his California return. His income falls below the California filing threshold, but he'd have to file to obtain a refund of his withheld CA taxes.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/residency-status/index.html

**Answers are correct to the best of my ability but do not constitute tax or legal advice.