What’s New and Other Important Information for 2024 - Key Filing Rules

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Cart

What’s New and Other Important Information for 2024 summarizes key California tax filing rules and their relationship to federal law. It explains how community property affects married/RDP filing separately, the limits on spousal/RDP exemption credits, and eligibility standards for head of household, including specific documentation requirements using Form FTB 3532. It also covers qualifying surviving spouse/RDP conditions, HOH foster-child rules, and the impact of conformity differences, including 2024 wildfire relief payment treatment and related reporting guidance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time1 min

AccessFree to download

What’s New and Other Important Information for 2024

Differences between California and Federal Law

2024 Tax Law Changes/What’s New

Head of Household (HOH) filing status

Qualifying Surviving Spouse/RDP

Married/RDP filing separately rules

| Married/RDP Filing Separately
Community property rules apply to the division of income if you use the married/RDP filing separately filing status. For more information, get FTB Pub. 1031, Guidelines for Determining Resident Status, FTB Pub. 737, Tax Information for Registered Domestic Partners, or
FTB Pub. 1032, Tax Information for Military Personnel. See “Order Forms and Publications” or go to [ftb.ca.gov/forms](ftb.ca.gov/forms).
You cannot claim a personal exemption credit for your spouse/RDP even if your spouse/RDP had no income, is not filing a tax return, and is not claimed as a dependent on another person’s tax return. You may be able to file as head of household if your child lived with you and you lived apart from your spouse/RDP during the entire last six months of 2024.
Head of Household
For the specific requirements that must be met to qualify for head of household (HOH) filing status, get FTB Pub. 1540, Tax Information for Head of Household Filing Status. In general, HOH filing status is for unmarried individuals and certain married individuals or RDPs living apart who provide a home for a specified relative. You may be entitled to use HOH filing status if all of the following apply:
You were unmarried and not in a registered domestic partnership, or you met the requirements to be considered unmarried or considered not in a registered domestic partnership on December 31, 2024. You paid more than one-half the cost of keeping up your home for the year in 2024.
For more than half the year, your home was the main home for you and one of the specified relatives who by law can qualify you for HOH filing status.
You were not a nonresident alien at any time during the year. | For a child to qualify as your foster child for HOH purposes, the child must either be placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by order of a court.
California requires taxpayers who use HOH filing status to file form FTB 3532, Head of Household Filing Status Schedule, to report how the HOH filing status was determined.
Beginning in tax year 2018, if you do not attach a completed form FTB 3532 to your tax return, we will deny your HOH filing status. For more information about the HOH filing requirements, go to[ftb.ca.gov](ftb.ca.gov and)[ and](ftb.ca.gov and) search for hoh. To get form FTB 3532, see “Order Forms and Publications” or go to [ftb.ca.gov/forms](ftb.ca.gov/forms).
Qualifying Surviving Spouse/RDP
Check the box on Form 540, line 5 and use the joint return tax rates for 2024 if all five of the following apply:
• Your spouse/RDP died in 2022 or 2023 and you did not remarry or enter into another registered domestic partnership in 2024.
• You have a child, stepchild, or adopted child (not a foster child) whom you can claim as a dependent or could claim as a dependent except that, for 2024:
○ The child had gross income of $5,050 or more;
○ The child filed a joint return; or
○ You could be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return. If the child is not claimed as your dependent, enter the child’s name in the entry space under the “Qualifying surviving spouse/RDP” filing status.
• This child lived in your home for all of 2024 . Temporary absences, such as for vacation or school, count as time lived in the home.
• You paid over half the cost of keeping up your home for this child.
• You could have filed a joint tax return with your spouse/RDP the year he or she died, even if you actually did not do so. | | --- | --- | | What’s New and Other Important Information for 2024 | | Differences between California and Federal Law In general, for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, California law conforms to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) as of January 1, 2015. However, there are continuing differences between California and federal law. When California conforms to federal tax law changes, we do not always adopt all of the changes made at the federal level.

FAQs

How does community property affect married/RDP filing separately in 2024?

Community property rules apply to the division of income when using the married/RDP filing separately filing status.

What are the requirements to qualify for head of household (HOH) in 2024?

HOH generally requires being unmarried (or treated as unmarried) and paying more than half the cost of keeping up a home, with the home being the main home for the filer and a qualifying specified relative for more than half the year, and not being a nonresident alien at any time during the year.

What happens if Form FTB 3532 is not attached for HOH in tax year 2018 and later?

Starting in tax year 2018, if a completed Form FTB 3532 is not attached to the tax return, the taxpayer will be denied HOH filing status.

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Cart