How is california state tax calculated

Resident status rules. Part-year resident status rules. Nonresident status rules. Services performed in California. Find the tax relief company that's best for you. Free initial consultation. Dedicated case analyst. Learn more at Community Tax. Dedicated case manager. Learn more at Optima. Learn more at Jackson Hewitt.

On a similar note Dive even deeper in Taxes. Explore Taxes. Get more smart money moves — straight to your inbox. Sign up. Services Dedicated case analyst. Services Dedicated case manager. While federal tax rates apply to every taxpayer, state income taxes vary by state. State tax is levied by California on your income each year. California income taxes are drawn from your paycheck as a percentage of money that you pay to the state government based on the income you earn. The California income tax brackets are based on taxable income as well as your filing status.

See the tables below to view what your California tax rate may be, based on your filing status. Qualifying deductions might include an itemized deduction, the California standard deduction, exemptions for dependants, business expenses, etc.

Remember that California may have very different deduction laws from the Federal Income Tax , so you may have to write a whole new list of deductions for your California income tax return. In addition to marginal tax brackets, one of the major features of the California income tax is deductions.

The three most common deductions encountered by taxpayers are the California Standard Deduction , the California Personal Exemption , and the California Dependent Deduction.

The current values of these deductions for tax year are as follows:. The standard deduction, which California has, is a deduction that is available by default to all taxpayers who do not instead choose to file an itemized deduction. The Personal Exemption , which is supported by the California income tax, is an additional deduction you can take if you and not someone else are primarily responsible for your own living expenses.

Likewise, you can take an additional dependent exemption for each qualifying dependent like a child or family member , who you financially support. These are the rates you would actually pay on taxable products within city limits. Most items are subject to these rates, but there are some exceptions, as well as certain products that face higher rates. Among the products on which sales taxes are not required are most groceries, prescription medicine and utilities like gas and electricity.

Products that face separate tax rates include alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and gasoline. For alcohol and cigarettes, rates are assessed based on the quantity of the product purchased. Wine, for example, faces a rate of 20 cents per gallon. For regular gasoline, there is a That law has helped keep Californians' property tax payments below the national average, and in some cases, significantly so. If you are looking to refinance or purchase a property in California using a mortgage, check out our guide to mortgage rates and getting a mortgage in the Golden State.

California has no estate tax. In some states, inheritances or gifts are subject to a special tax, in addition to the federal estate tax. This is not the case in California. Insurance premiums are taxable in California.

It is imposed on insurance premiums and paid by insurance companies, although in practice it may lead to higher rates for consumers. Are you curious how your tax burden stacks up against others in your state?

Scroll over any county in the state to learn about taxes in that specific area. To find the places with the lowest tax burdens, SmartAsset calculated the amount of money a specific person would pay in income, sales, property and fuel taxes in each county in the country.

To better compare income tax burdens across counties, we used the national median household income. We then applied relevant deductions and exemptions before calculating federal, state and local income taxes. We multiplied the average sales tax rate for a county by the household income after taxes. For property taxes, we compared the median property taxes paid in each county. For fuel taxes, we first distributed statewide vehicle miles traveled to the county level using the number of vehicles in each county.

We then calculated the total number of licensed drivers within each county. The countywide miles were then distributed amongst the licensed drivers in the county, which gave us the miles driven per licensed driver. Using the nationwide average fuel economy, we calculated the average gallons of gas used per driver in each county and multiplied that by the fuel tax.