California state income tax: engine rules, 2026

How the tax is computed

Every step the engine takes for California, in the order it takes them. Steps marked with a filing status or household type apply only there. Each step links the section below that carries California's figures and the official sources for it; the calculation order page describes every step for all jurisdictions.

What each filing status gets, read back from the engine for a household with $1 of income (so below every phase-out and income test):

1. Per-person mode joint returns with the spouse's age given On a joint return with the spouse's age given, every age test the state applies per taxpayer is evaluated for each spouse at their own age. Without it one household age applies to both.
   engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: The engine cannot know the second spouse's age unless told.
2. Blindness and disability, per person only when the caller says a person is blind or disabled The filer is person one; the spouse counts only on a joint return and only when the caller says so (there is no household convention as for age). Where a state lets a disabled person (and, where it says so, a blind one, or one whose spouse is disabled) qualify for its general retirement exclusion before the age, that person is treated as having reached the age for that exclusion only. Of the 42 taxing jurisdictions, these have a blind amount: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Virginia; these have none: Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. A disability route is calculated in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon and West Virginia.
   engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: Who is blind or disabled is the caller's statement; the engine has no household convention for it.
3. Rate schedule and standard deduction by filing status Single uses the single schedule and deduction; married filing jointly the joint ones. Head of household and married filing separately follow the two steps below.
   California's values · engine step (select_brackets). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
4. Married filing separately Where the state publishes its own separate schedule, that one (with half the joint deduction unless a separate deduction is set). Where one schedule applies to every status, that schedule unscaled with the single deduction. Otherwise the joint schedule with every threshold and the deduction halved (computed as the joint tax on twice the income, halved).
   California's values · engine step (select_brackets). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
5. Head of household The state's head-of-household schedule where it has one, else the single schedule; the head-of-household deduction where set, else the single deduction.
   California's values · engine step (select_brackets). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
6. The income total every income test uses Other ordinary income + retirement distributions (before any exclusion) + conversion + federally taxable Social Security + long-term gains + Railroad Retirement Tier 2. It stands in for federal adjusted gross income in every threshold, cliff and phase-out below; state subtractions do not reduce it. Each income line a threshold reads (this total and the states' own AGI lines) is rounded to cents first, as the form's line is, so a sum of cent amounts that a binary double holds a hair under a threshold tests as the amount it is.
   engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: The inputs are the federal AGI components, so their sum is federal AGI for these income types.
7. Interest on state, local and U.S. obligations The state's own treatment of interest: the federally tax-exempt interest on other states' obligations (outOfStateMunicipalInterest) is added where the state taxes it, and its own (inStateMunicipalInterest) where it taxes that too; the interest on U.S. obligations (usObligationInterest, a part of ordinaryIncome) is taken out (31 U.S.C. 3124). Both change the state's income, its own income tests and its base, never the federal income total above. Each state's rule is on its page (interest). Illinois adds all of the federal 2a interest (IL-1040 line 2), so the part of taxExemptInterest not split into the two municipal parts is added too.
   California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Interest on state, local and U.S. obligations): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17133 (checked 2026-10-19)
8. Attributing income to each spouse joint returns with each spouse's own amounts given With a caller's split (the API's spouse object), each spouse's own distributions (employer-plan money included), pension, public pension, conversion, wages and military pay; spouse 2's shares are clamped into the household totals and spouse 1 gets the rest. Without a split, in per-person mode, every item is divided 50/50. Social Security is divided by each spouse's own gross benefits where the caller gives spouse.socialSecurityGross, else 50/50; other ordinary income and gains are always divided 50/50 where a rule needs a per-person amount. The split is used only where a state's rule is per taxpayer; household totals stay authoritative for the base and the income tests.
   engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: Equal attribution is the neutral split when the owner of a dollar is not known.
9. Early IRA distributions The IRA and employer-plan dollars each person took before 59½: the amount the caller gave, else every such dollar of a person under 59 at the end of the year (none of an older person, or when the age is not given). Where the state keeps its retirement break only for some federal early-withdrawal exceptions, the other early dollars leave the retirement pool and are taxed as ordinary income; the exception is the caller's, else death for a survivor's benefits, disability for a disabled person, else none. Where the state taxes only the part over the IRA basis, the part within it is left out altogether. A kept exception passes the state's IRA age gate. The additional state tax on the early dollars with no exception is added before the credits, or after them where the state says so (next steps). Where the caller's early dollars decide (MS), only they are taxed and the rest of that person's distributions pass the exclusion's age gate (not said: the age gate alone). The early dollars with no exception are also counted for the federal §72(t) additional tax that MO adds to the federal tax it deducts and that OK takes back out of federalTaxBeforeCredits for the federal child credit limit.
   California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (IRA, 401(k) and private pensions): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02)
10. Keeping the per-spouse shares inside the household joint returns with each spouse's own amounts given After the public-pension and employer-pension carve-outs, if the two spouses' remaining shares add up to more than the household's exclusion-eligible distributions (an inconsistent split), spouse 1's share is reduced so they do not.
    engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: Input normalisation.
11. Military retirement pay The state's military rule runs first, on military pay alone, per taxpayer: each spouse's own pay at their own age when attributed, otherwise half each at the household age on a joint return. Exempt dollars leave the base; the rest become pension dollars for the general retirement rules. Where the state lets a disabled retiree qualify at any age, a disabled person is treated as having reached the rule's age.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Military retirement pay): Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 540 ca instructions (checked 2026-11-02); Bill status SB1407 (checked 2026-09-28); Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.10 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code 17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12)
12. One taxpayer's military exemption Exempt: all of it (below the age split, up to the younger cap). Capped: up to the cap for the age tier, plus the earned-income bonus below the age split when the taxpayer's own wages exceed the threshold, less the taxpayer's own Social Security where the rule says so. Percentage: the percentage (below the age split, up to the younger cap). Then the income limit: above it the exemption is lost, or phased out over the range where one is set.
    California's values · engine step (military_exempt_one). Sources (Military retirement pay): Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 540 ca instructions (checked 2026-11-02); Bill status SB1407 (checked 2026-09-28); Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.10 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code 17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12)
13. One military cap per joint return joint returns On a joint return the cap is one amount for the couple, over the pay of the spouses who pass the age test, reduced by the household's Social Security where the rule says so, then the income test.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Military retirement pay): Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 540 ca instructions (checked 2026-11-02); Bill status SB1407 (checked 2026-09-28); Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.10 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code 17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12)
14. Capital-loss deduction off the base The deduction comes off the other ordinary income (negative income, as Form 1040 line 7a is), so the base and every state-AGI figure summed from it carry it; WI no more than Wisconsin ordinary income (Schedule WD line 28(c)). States whose base is federal taxable income (with the caller's figure) already have it there and take it only once. Engine 1.13.1: the allowed rental loss comes off the same way, on its own line (rental_loss_deduction).
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Capital gains): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Form 540, California Resident Income Tax Return (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses (checked 2026-11-02)
15. Social Security exempt None of the federally taxable benefit enters the base.
    California's values · engine step (ss_amount_in_state_base). Sources (Social Security): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02)
16. Retirement exclusion (household) The distributions eligible for the exclusion go through the exclusion below. Taxable public-pension dollars left by a cap are not eligible; below the IRA age only employer-plan dollars are.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (IRA, 401(k) and private pensions): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02)
17. Conversion taxed or exempt In full-exclusion states a conversion is exempt at the qualifying age (at any age where the state says so). Elsewhere, unless pooled above, it is ordinary income taxed in full.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Roth conversions): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02)
18. Long-term gains in the base Where gains are taxed as ordinary income: net long-term gain less the flat exclusion (never below zero), times the inclusion share. Elsewhere none enters.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Capital gains): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Form 540, California Resident Income Tax Return (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses (checked 2026-11-02)
19. The federal below-the-line deductions The amounts the federal return deducts below AGI, which a state that allows them takes as they are (26 U.S.C. 224, 225, 163(h)(4) and 170(p), the federal caps and phase-outs as the statutes print them): the Schedule 1-A qualified tips deduction (the employee tips up to the per-return cap, less the statute's step for each whole thousand dollars of modified AGI over its single or joint start; none on a separate return), the qualified overtime deduction (its cap, doubled on a joint return, the same reduction; none on a separate return), the qualified passenger vehicle loan interest deduction (its cap, less the statute's step for each thousand dollars, or part, over its start) and the non-itemizer charitable deduction (cash gifts to public charities other than donor-advised funds, up to its cap, doubled on a joint return, and the 60 percent of AGI limit). Modified AGI is the engine's federal AGI. With computeFederal the federal return's own tips, overtime and 170(p) amounts are used.
    California's values · engine step (state_tax_federal_bl_deductions). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
20. The state's own itemized deduction from the federal Schedule A When the caller hands over the federal Schedule A (POST /api/state-tax computeFederal with federalItemized on a full-year resident return; Georgia also on a part-year or nonresident return, the itemized deduction times the Form 500 Schedule 3 line 9 ratio as line 13 prorates it, 2025 in whole dollars), the state's itemized deduction is built from its lines by the state's own schedule (which taxes count and under which cap, the medical floor, the gift limit, caps and the overall limitation) and weighed against the standard deduction with any age and blindness amounts an itemizer gives up; the return takes the larger, or follows the federal choice (Oklahoma). Maine's income phase-out reduces the itemized deduction as it does the standard one. Louisiana's line 9D, Massachusetts' line 2e medical exemption and Vermont's IN-112 line 11 medical deduction are subtracted on top of the standard deduction after federal itemizing; Massachusetts' Schedule Y line 9c charitable deduction is subtracted whether or not; Wisconsin has no itemized deduction but a credit on the Schedule A items over the standard deduction (itemized-deduction-credit); Oregon's special medical subtraction for a single filer 66 or older without dependents follows the choice. A return starting from federal taxable income has the federal itemized deduction in its base already.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
21. State taxable income Other ordinary income + Social Security, retirement income, conversion and gains left in the base − standard deduction − personal exemption − age subtractions.
    engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: The order of subtraction follows the state forms; each amount is sourced at its own step.
22. 2025 tax line rounded to the whole dollar (VA, MO, WV, DE, CA, OR, GA, ME, VT, MT, PA, MI, IL, OH, AZ, ID, UT, LA, NE, IN, MS, NC, CT, AR, MN, CO, KS, NY, NM, WI, HI, MA, AL, OK, SC, KY, DC) Engine 1.20.0, a 2025 return in a state whose 2025 instructions say the tax line is a whole-dollar line (VA Form 760 line 16, MO-1040 lines 30Y/30S for each spouse, WV IT-140 line 8, DE PIT-RES line 24, CA Form 540 line 31, OR-40 line 20, GA Form 500 line 16; engine 1.21.0 adds ME Form 1040ME line 20 and VT IN-111 line 8 where the rate schedule gives them, MT Form 2 page 2 lines 8, 10 and 12, PA-40 line 12, MI-1040 line 17 and IL-1040 line 12, each rounded; engine 1.24.0 adds AZ Form 140 line 46, ID Form 40 line 20, UT TC-40 line 10, LA IT-540 line 11, NE Form 1040N line 15, IN IT-40 line 8 and MS Form 80-105 line 15, and OH IT 1040 line 8a with its schedule base amounts, ty25-oh-whole-dollar-tax): the rate-schedule tax is rounded to the nearest dollar, half a dollar up: since engine 1.24.0 from the exact amount (ty25-round-exact), except California and West Virginia, whose rate-schedule worksheets write the product to the cent first. Table rows are whole dollars already. The instructions' own worked examples are quoted at the marker and pinned in the printed-answer fixtures. Golden round 10 adds NC (D-400 line 15), CT (Tax Calculation Schedule line 4), AR (AR1000F line 29, and each column of filing status 4), MN (M1 line 10), CO (DR 0104 line 13 and its worksheet above the table), KS (K-40 line 8; above the table the Tax Computation Worksheet with its printed whole-dollar subtraction amounts, not the exact bracket sums), NY (IT-201 line 39 and each line of the tax computation worksheets), NM (PIT-1 line 18 and its schedule above the table) and WI (Form 1 line 12): these nine round half a dollar up from the exact amount, with no cents step (st25_dollar6), so a product whose cents are 49.73 is rounded down (CT Table B, golden round 10 CT-09). Golden round 10, group C adds HI (N-11), MA (Form 1 line 22, line 24 apart), AL (Form 40 line 17), OK (Form 511 / 511-NR), SC (SC1040 line 6, the printed schedule above the table), KY (Form 740 line 12, each status-2 column) and DC (D-40 line 20), in both the tax-table and the rate-schedule mode (ty25-whole-dollar-c).
    engine step (st25_whole_dollar_tax). Engine convention, no external source: The 2025 instructions' whole-dollar rule and worked examples, quoted at CALC-STEP ty25-whole-dollar-tax (ME, VT and MT at st25_whole_lines: ME 'Use whole dollar amounts.' (https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/25_1040me_gen_instr_w_cover_pg.pdf); VT 'Use Whole Dollars. Round entries to the nearest whole dollar.' (https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/IN-111-Instr-2025.pdf); MT: every money line of the 2025 Form 2 prints the cents as '00'). PA: 'On the PA-40 form and schedules, show money amounts in whole-dollars.' (https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/formsandpublications/formsforindividuals/pit/documents/2025/2025_pa-40in.pdf); MI: 'Report all amounts in whole dollars.' (https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/-/media/Project/Websites/taxes/Forms/IIT/TY2025/MI-1040-Book.pdf); IL: 'You must round cents to whole dollars on Form IL-1040 and most schedules, as directed.' (https://tax.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/tax/forms/incometax/documents/currentyear/individual/il-1040-instr.pdf). NJ's rounding is optional and stays in cents. Engine 1.24.0 (golden round 10): AZ 'You must round dollar amounts to the nearest whole dollar. If 50 cents or more, round up to the next dollar. If less than 50 cents, round down. Do not enter cents.' (https://azdor.gov/sites/default/files/document/FORMS_INDIVIDUAL_2025_140i.pdf); ID 'Round the amounts on your return to the nearest whole dollar. Round down if under 50 cents, round up if 50 cents or more.' (2025 Idaho individual income tax instructions); UT 'Round off cents to the nearest whole dollar. Round down if under 50 cents; round up if 50 cents and above. Do not enter cents on the return.' (https://files.tax.utah.gov/tax/forms/current/tc-40inst.pdf); LA 'All numbers should be rounded to the nearest dollar.' and 'Line 11 - Multiply Line 10 by .03. Round to the nearest dollar.' (2025 IT-540 instructions); NE 'Enter All Amounts as Whole Dollars. Do not include cents on the return or schedules.' (2025 Form 1040N booklet); IN 'You must round your amounts to the nearest whole dollar.' (2025 IT-40 booklet p.5); MS 'All dollar amounts should be rounded to the nearest whole dollar (no pennies).' (2025 Form 80-100 instructions); OH 'Round all figures to the nearest dollar.' (https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/tax.ohio.gov/forms/ohio_individual/individual/2025/it1040-booklet.pdf). Golden round 10: NC 'Round off to the nearest whole dollar. Drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts from 50 cents to 99 cents to the next whole dollar.' (2025 D-401 instructions); CT-1040 'Whole Dollars Only'; AR 'ROUND ALL AMOUNTS TO WHOLE DOLLARS' (2025 AR1000F); MN 'Round the dollar amounts to the nearest dollar. For example: 129.49 becomes 129, and 129.50 becomes 130.' (2025 M1 instructions); CO 'Round all dollar amounts to the nearest whole dollar.' (2025 DR 0104 booklet); KS 'ENTER AMOUNTS IN WHOLE DOLLARS ONLY' (2025 K-40) and the 2025 Tax Computation Worksheet (IP25 p.34); NY 'enter whole dollar amounts only. This includes amounts on any credit forms, schedules, or other forms you submit with your New York State return.' (2025 IT-201-I); NM 'Round all numbers and enter only whole dollar amounts.' (2025 PIT-1 instructions); WI 'All amounts filled in on the form should be rounded to the nearest dollar.' (2025 Form 1 and Form 1NPR instructions).
23. 2025 whole-dollar returns, line by line (ME, VT, MT, VA, OR, MO, DE, GA, WV, CA, PA, MI, IL, OH, AZ, ID, UT, LA, NE, IN, MS, NC, CT, AR, MN, CO, KS, NY, NM, WI, HI, MA, AL, OK, SC, KY, DC); RI, MD, ND and IA lines to the cent Engine 1.21.0, a 2025 return in a state whose 2025 instructions say every amount on the return is a whole-dollar amount (ME "Use whole dollar amounts", VT "Round entries to the nearest whole dollar", MT Form 2 "00" cents, VA, OR, MO, DE, GA, WV, CA, PA, MI, IL): a worksheet's or a credit's product is rounded where the form writes it (half a dollar up from the exact amount since engine 1.24.0, ty25-round-exact; California and West Virginia to the cent first): ME standard/itemized deduction and exemption phase-out line 7, pension deduction, property tax fairness credit lines; VT Social Security / military / non-covered pension partial exemptions, the IN-153 cap on federal taxable income, the minimum tax, the IN-119 early-distribution tax, the charitable credit; MT Schedule II, 2EC and the itemized add-back; VA Form 763 lines 17-18 and the itemized total; OR-40-N line 42 (the deduction plus the federal tax subtraction prorated as one product); MO-1040 line 33 per spouse and the federal tax deduction; GA's part-year retirement exclusion and Schedule 3 line 13 of a separate return; WV Schedule M line 34; CA FTB 3805P line 4 and Form 540NR lines 35/37/39; PA Schedule SP line 16; MI-1040CR lines 12, 34 and 38/41, Worksheet 5 and Form 4884 Worksheet 3.3 line 4; IL Schedule ICR line 4g and the child tax credit on the rounded IL EITC. Engine 1.24.0 adds OH (Schedule of Credits line 12, the joint filing credit; IT NRC line 20; line 13, the share of the federal EIC), UT (TC-40 lines 16 and 19, the AH, AJ, code 18 and AT credit worksheets: ty25-ut-whole-dollar-credits), AZ (the reduced dependent tax credit), ID (Form 43 line 63, the part-year food tax credit), IN (CT-40 line 3, the county tax: ty25-whole-dollar-local) and the prorated deduction and exemption lines of AZ, ID, MS and IN part-year and nonresident returns (ty25-py-whole-lines); LA, NE and MS lines the engine computes are the tax line and the ratio products. The eight states of engine 1.24.0 round from the exact amount, with no cent step (st25_dollar6). Golden round 10 adds NC, CT, AR, MN, CO, KS, NY, NM and WI, rounded half a dollar up from the exact amount (st25_dollar6): NC D-400 line 14 (Schedule PN: line 12b x the line 24 decimal) and line 15; CT Tax Calculation Schedule line 9 (line 7 x the Table E decimal) and CT-1040NR/PY line 10; AR1000NR line 38D and AR line 32 (the early-distribution tax); MN M1NR line 32 and Worksheet A for line 4 steps 3, 5 and 8; CO DR 0104PN line 36; KS K-40 line 10; NY IT-203 line 46, the NYC and Yonkers lines and the household and school credits; NM PIT-B line 14 and the low- and middle-income exemption worksheet line 5; WI Form 1NPR line 39, the married couple credit and the line 25 early-distribution tax. RI-1040 lines keep the cents ("must include cents"). The sources are quoted at st25_whole_lines and st25_cents_lines; the printed-answer fixtures pin the forms' examples. Golden round 10, group C adds HI, MA, AL, OK, SC, KY and DC to the whole-dollar returns and MD to the cents returns ("State calculations are rounded to the nearest cent"); their own lines are at ty25-whole-dollar-c.
    engine step (st25_in). Engine convention, no external source: The 2025 instructions' whole-dollar (and RI cents) rules, quoted at st25_whole_lines / st25_cents_lines and CALC-STEP ty25-whole-dollar-lines.
24. 2025 whole-dollar lines: one rounding, from the exact amount (CA and WV to the cent first) Engine 1.24.0 (golden round 10): every whole-dollar line of a 2025 return (ty25-whole-dollar-tax, ty25-whole-dollar-lines, ty25-whole-dollar-c and the state lines that cite them) is rounded by one function (st25_dollar6) on the one list of 2025 whole-dollar returns: half a dollar up from the exact amount, with no step to the cent first, as each state's form says (Virginia: "Amounts less than 50 cents should be rounded down while all amounts of 50 cents - 99 cents should be rounded up"). An amount whose cents are at least 49.5 but under 50 is rounded down: a Connecticut Table B product with 49.73 cents is entered a dollar lower than engines 1.20.0-1.23.0 entered it (they rounded it to the cent first, golden round 10 CT-09). California and West Virginia keep the step to the cent: their rate-schedule worksheets write the product to the cent before the total is rounded (California's Step 4, "round the amount from Step 3 to two decimals"; West Virginia's Rate Schedule example). 2026 answers are unchanged.
    engine step (st25_dollar6). Engine convention, no external source: VA: 'All amounts entered on your return must be rounded to the nearest dollar. Amounts less than 50 cents should be rounded down while all amounts of 50 cents - 99 cents should be rounded up.' (2025 Form 760 instructions, https://www.tax.virginia.gov/sites/default/files/vatax-pdf/2025-760-instructions.pdf); MO: 'For 1 cent through 49 cents, round down to the previous whole dollar amount. For 50 cents through 99 cents, round up to the next whole dollar amount.' (2025 MO-1040 instructions); DE: 'amounts from 50 to 99 cents are increased to the next dollar' (2025 PIT-RES instructions); OR: '$99.49 becomes $99, and $99.50 becomes $100' (2025 OR-40 instructions); MI: 'Round down amounts of 49 cents or less. Round up amounts of 50 cents or more.' (2025 MI-1040 book); ME: 'Round down to the next lower dollar any amount less than 50 cents.' (2025 Form 1040ME instructions); IL: 'drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts of 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar' (2025 IL-1040 instructions). CA: 'They round the amount from Step 3 to two decimals (if necessary) and add it to the tax amount for their income range. After rounding the result, they will enter $4,768' (2025 Form 540 booklet, How to Figure Tax Using the 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules); WV: '$ 2,778.01 Tax on excess of $57,635 ... $ 4,831.51 Total Tax on $117,635 (Round to nearest whole dollar)' (2025 IT-140 booklet, Rate Schedule I).
25. 2025 whole-dollar returns: the amounts you enter are whole dollars too (37 jurisdictions); ND and IA lines to the cent Golden round 11: on a 2025 return in one of the 37 whole-dollar jurisdictions every amount the form makes you enter is a whole dollar, not only the lines it computes: each income amount of the request (one entry of the form: a person's wages, the household's interest, a part-year return's state-source amounts), each federal-return line the state return copies (with computeFederal: the taxable Social Security, the federal tax lines, Form 1040 lines 12e and 13b one by one, so Montana's line 3 is the entered federal AGI less each entered deduction line) and a credit's facts (the property tax paid) are entered rounded, half a dollar up, and a figure the form reads from its own charts by income (a standard deduction or child deduction table, an exemption tier, a tax-table row) is read on the entered amount. The request is validated on the amounts as sent (a negative cent is still refused); input shows the amounts as entered and yearNotes says so. North Dakota's and Iowa's 2025 lines are written to the cent, as Rhode Island's and Maryland's (Iowa's whole-dollar rounding is optional). 2026 answers are unchanged.
    engine step (state_tax_ty25_whole_entries). Engine convention, no external source: PA: 'On the PA-40 form and schedules, show money amounts in whole-dollars. Eliminate any amount less than $0.50 and increase any amount that is $0.50 or more to the next highest dollar.' (2025 PA-40 instructions p.4, https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/formsandpublications/formsforindividuals/pit/documents/2025/2025_pa-40in.pdf); VA: 'All amounts entered on your return must be rounded to the nearest dollar.' (2025 Form 760 instructions); IA: 'You can round off cents to whole dollars on your return and schedules. If you do round to whole dollars, you must round all amounts.' (2025 IA 1040 expanded instructions, What's New).
26. 2025 whole-dollar returns: the request validated as sent, evaluated as entered Golden round 11: a 2025 request for one of the 37 whole-dollar jurisdictions is validated on the caller's own amounts, then evaluated on each amount rounded to the dollar as the form enters it (ty25-whole-entries); a part of two amounts (early distributions of the IRA and employer-plan money, the out-of-state part of the tax-exempt interest) stays within their entered sum. Should the entered amounts break a rule the caller's own met, the caller's amounts are evaluated as given.
    engine step (stj_ty25_enter). Engine convention, no external source: The forms' whole-dollar rules quoted at ty25-whole-entries and ty25-whole-dollar-lines.
27. 2025 early-distribution taxes from whole-dollar lines (CA per spouse; NE, VT, WI, AR from the federal Schedule 2 line 8 tax; OR, MO federal tax) Golden round 11: on a 2025 whole-dollar return the state's tax on early distributions is figured from whole-dollar lines. California: each spouse files his or her own FTB 3805P, each form's tax is rounded to the dollar, and line 63 is the combined tax. Nebraska Form 1040N line 16b, Vermont IN-119, Wisconsin Form 1 line 25 and Arkansas line 32 start from the federal Schedule 2 line 8 tax entered in whole dollars, as does the federal tax Oregon and Missouri deduct.
    engine step (st25_fed72t). Engine convention, no external source: CA: 'Joint Returns. Each spouse/RDP must complete a separate form FTB 3805P for taxes attributable to his or her distribution from a qualified retirement plan ... enter the combined tax from both forms on Form 540 ... line 63' (2025 FTB 3805P instructions); WI: 'fill in the total of such taxes in the space provided on line 25. Multiply the amount filled in by .33 (33%)' (2025 Form 1 instructions, https://www.revenue.wi.gov/TaxForms2025/2025-Form1-Inst.pdf).
28. 2025 refundable credit lines in whole dollars (ME, VT, MT, VA, OR, MO, DE, GA, WV, CA, PA, MI, IL, OH, AZ, ID, UT, LA, NE, IN, MS, NC, CT, AR, MN, CO, KS, NY, NM, WI) Engine 1.21.0, a 2025 return of a whole-dollar state (ty25-whole-dollar-lines): each refundable credit line is entered in whole dollars (ME earned income credit worksheet line 3, VT IN-112 Part II, OR Kids Credit, VA Form 760 line 23's refundable share of the federal EIC, ...); a line that rounds to nothing drops out of refundableCredits. Golden round 10 adds NC, CT, AR, MN, CO, KS, NY, NM and WI (CT EITC, CO, MN, NM, NY and NYC credit lines).
    engine step (state_tax_refundable_credits). Engine convention, no external source: The 2025 instructions' whole-dollar rules, quoted at st25_whole_lines and CALC-STEP ty25-whole-dollar-credits.
29. No tax at or below zero State taxable income at or below zero returns a tax of 0 (credits are not refundable), unless the state has a tax computed apart from taxable income that still applies (next step).
    engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: Every credit the engine carries is nonrefundable, so nothing below can make a zero tax negative; each credit is sourced at its own step.
30. Separate-return scaling married filing separately For the halved-joint rule, taxable income is doubled before the schedule and the result halved.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
31. The rate schedule Each bracket's rate on the part of taxable income inside it, summed. No rounding: the result is carried in full precision.
    California's values · engine step (apply_state_brackets). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
32. The rate schedule as printed (New York, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, Vermont) New York's Tax Law §601 prints its 2026 schedules as whole-dollar base amounts plus the rate on the excess over the bracket's start; each base is the previous base plus the previous bracket's full tax, rounded to the dollar. The engine uses those bases wherever it reads the schedule (the tax, the §601(d-1) recapture worksheets, a part-year return's full-year tax). Maine's schedule (36 M.R.S. 5111, indexed by Maine Revenue Services) is printed the same way (the running sum of the rounded bases). Hawaii's HRS 235-51 (and Act 24's 2027 and 2029 tables) print whole-dollar bases too, each the exact sum of the lower brackets rounded to the dollar; so do Missouri's chart (RSMo 143.011; the MO-1040 worksheet adds the chart's base) and Vermont's rate schedules (32 V.S.A. 5822; the 2026 preliminary schedules, and the return's extra row where the tax table ends, with married filing separately on its own printed schedule). Other states' schedules print exact sums and the engine uses those.
    California's values · engine step (st_brackets). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
33. Additional tax on early distributions The state's share of the federal additional tax on early distributions (the rate on each early dollar with no exception): added before the credits (Arkansas, Nebraska, Vermont), or after them in California and Wisconsin (see the step after the credits).
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (IRA, 401(k) and private pensions): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02)
34. Per-exemption credit The credit per exemption: two on a joint return, one otherwise, or the state's own count for a head of household. Where the state sets an income limit there is no credit above it (the joint limit for joint returns and heads of household).
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
35. Credit per dependent only when the caller lists dependents A credit per dependent, under the same income cutoff and phase-out as the personal credits where the state has them (each dependent credit loses the same amount per step, floored as a group).
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
36. Senior credit The credit per taxpayer at or above the age: two on a joint return at the household age, one per qualifying spouse in per-person mode. A head of household's extra personal credit is not a second senior credit.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Age 65+ subtractions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12)
37. Credit for blindness only when the caller says a person is blind or disabled The credit for each blind person.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Blindness and disability): 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §17054 (archived copy) (checked 2026-11-02); Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (archived copy) (checked 2026-11-02)
38. Retiree credits The retirement income credit by the retirement income left in the base (one per return) and a senior credit per return, both while income less exemptions is under the limit; the retirement income credit on the pension income of the persons at the age, at most the base less all Social Security and less household income over the household base; and the senior head of household credit on taxable income, at most the cap, for a filer at the age whose head-of-household qualifying person died in one of the two previous years, while income is at most the limit.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Age 65+ subtractions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12)
39. Personal, senior and blind credits phased out Above the status threshold each personal, senior and blind credit loses the amount for each step of income (or part of one), not below zero; the separate step applies to married filing separately.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
40. Credits cannot make the tax negative The credits are subtracted and the result floored at zero.
    engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Engine convention, no external source: Every credit the engine carries is nonrefundable; each credit is sourced at its own step.
41. Surtax on high income The rate times state taxable income over the filing status's threshold.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Surtaxes and recapture): California Revenue and Taxation Code §17043 (checked 2026-10-12)
42. Qualifying surviving spouse qualifying surviving spouse returns A qualifying surviving spouse (filingStatus qss) is one person on the return, taxed from the single figures with the state's own treatment of the status laid over them: where the state says so, the joint rate schedule, the joint standard deduction, the joint personal exemption, the joint income limits and phase-outs (only those the state sets for joint returns), the married 65+ and blindness amounts, or the head-of-household return; where the state gives the status nothing of its own, the single return. The federal figures the engine derives for the status are the federal qualifying-surviving-spouse ones (the joint standard deduction, the married 65+ amount).
    California's values · engine step (state_tax_effective_config). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
43. Railroad Retirement benefits only when the caller gives Railroad Retirement benefits Railroad Retirement benefits are never taxed by a state (45 U.S.C. §231m). Tier 2 (railroadRetirementTier2) is in the income total the tests use but never in the base. Tier 1 (railroadRetirementTier1) is a part of the gross benefits (socialSecurityGross); its share of the taxable benefits is taken out of the Social Security every state rule sees, so a state that taxes Social Security never reaches it. Where a state's worksheet says so, the benefits reduce a retirement cap or subtraction (ID, IN, MD, ME, MN: both tiers; MI: the taxable railroad benefits); Minnesota's and Utah's Social Security rules test an income without them, Minnesota's, New Jersey's and California's retirement income tests an income without Tier 2; Ohio and Delaware test their own AGI everywhere, which never holds the benefits.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Social Security): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02)
44. The capital-loss deduction the state allows With a net capital loss (capitalLoss): the smaller of the loss and the state's limit (the federal $3,000 / $1,500 where the state follows the federal return; MA $2,000, and no more than the interest and dividends); AL the loss less the part carried in, unlimited; PA and NJ none. It comes off the income total the income tests use (and the Social Security worksheets' income); the gross-income filing test (LA) reads the total before it. Engine 1.13.1: with a rental loss (rentalNetIncome below 0, the federal Schedule E line 26 amount) the state allows, the whole loss where the state starts from federal AGI or follows the federal schedule, none in PA and NJ (rental_loss_no_offset): it comes off the same income the same way; a rental profit is other ordinary income.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Capital gains): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Form 540, California Resident Income Tax Return (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses (checked 2026-11-02)
45. Each spouse's own Social Security joint returns On a joint return, each spouse's own Social Security is the spouse's share of the benefits by spouse.socialSecurityGross when the caller gives it (Tier 1 railroad benefits left out), else half each. It is what the per-spouse rules read: Colorado's per-spouse subtraction, Rhode Island's per-spouse modification, and the Maine, Maryland and other retirement caps reduced by the benefits each spouse received (with each spouse's own railroad benefits where the state counts them).
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Social Security): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02)
46. Taxes that survive a zero taxable income Where the state's forms compute them apart from taxable income, the early-distribution tax, the minimum tax and the capital-gains surcharge still apply when taxable income is zero or less: the return goes on with taxable income 0 (no schedule tax), and only the credits the state allows against them reduce them.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (Rate schedule): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Tax Rate Schedules (Form 540) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02)
47. Early-distribution tax after the credits Where the state adds its early-distribution tax after the nonrefundable credits (California, Wisconsin), it is added to the tax left after them, so no credit offsets it.
    California's values · engine step (compute_state_tax_detail). Sources (IRA, 401(k) and private pensions): 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02)
48. Renter's credit (CA) Form 540 line 46: $60 ($120 joint, head of household, surviving spouse), nonrefundable, for a renter at CA AGI at most $55,830 ($111,660), with no property tax given.
    California's values · engine step (st_compute). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)
49. Refundable state credits The credits paid beyond the tax (reported in refundableCredits; netTax = totalTax less them): earned income credits as a share of the federal EIC with each state's own age band (OK on the 2020 federal credit, DC's own childless schedule, the CalEITC table, MN's Working Family Credit; PA's Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit, a tenth of the federal EIC, from 2025), New York's Empire State child credit (IT-213; state engine 1.16), the refundable child and dependent credits figured from the dependents' ages (MA Form 1 line 46, ME DETC, NJ line 65, NM PIT-RC line 25, OR Kids Credit, VT IN-112, CO DR 0104CN with 2025's Family Affordability Tax Credit, IL Schedule IL-E/EITC Step 5, MD Worksheet 21C, CA's young child tax credit, and MN's child tax credit with the Working Family Credit on Schedule M1CWFC), the NYC EIC and school tax credits, and the property-tax, renter, grocery and senior credits of MA, MI, NJ, ID, HI, NM, OK, AZ, NY, RI, WV, ME, DC, MN, MO, WI, IN and MT, each on its own income measure. Engine 1.13.1: a part-year NYC resident's school tax credits (the Table 2 proration chart and the rate-reduction amount on IT-360.1 line 47; IT-203 lines 60 / 60a for a part-year state resident). Golden round 3: Hawaii's food/excise bands are "under" their upper amounts, read on the N-11's whole-dollar AGI. Engine 1.19.0 (tax year 2025, the printed charts): the MO-PTS Property Tax Credit Chart, Oklahoma's 511-EIC 2020 EIC Table and Colorado's TABOR State Sales Tax Refund (DR 0104 line 38).
    California's values · engine step (state_tax_refundable_credits). Sources (Deductions, exemptions and credits): Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02)

Worked examples

Computed by the engine for the fixed households below (the same ones for every state, so states compare directly). Federal tax is not supplied, so a federal-tax deduction is not taken; the income tests use the sum of the components as income.

Line by line

The intermediate lines the engine records while it computes each example (its detail record, printed as it comes out; lines that are zero are left out). The engine's documentation build checks that the lines add up to the taxable income and the tax, for every state, filing status and a grid of households. Each line links the engine step that produces it.

After 2026: how the amounts move

A request with projection (API) estimates a later tax year from these rules: every dollar amount and age test below moves the way California's law moves it. Rates and the rules themselves stay the 2026 ones (how projection works).

Enacted for later years, not applied by the projection

None found: the research found no change enacted for years after 2026 beyond the schedules above.

What the engine does not calculate, and known approximations

• The exemption credits' AGI phase-out thresholds are the 2025 amounts: the FTB's 2026 indexing notice does not print them.
• California's credits other than the personal, senior, blind and dependent exemption credits (with their AGI phase-out) and the senior head of household credit (engine 1.7.0) are not modeled.
• California's alternative minimum tax is not modeled.
• The tax table (taxable income up to $100,000) is applied from engine 1.18.0 on a full-year resident return (rules.taxTable); for 2026, whose table is not published yet, by the 2025 table's rule on the 2026 schedule; whole-dollar line entries elsewhere can differ by under $1.
• The separate exclusion of Survivor Benefit Plan annuity payments for a surviving spouse or other beneficiary is not calculated as its own exclusion: such an annuity entered as a pension is taxed, and entered as military retirement pay it shares the military retirement exclusion. Sources: Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 540 ca instructions (checked 2026-11-02); Bill status SB1407 (checked 2026-09-28); Revenue and Taxation Code §17132.10 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code 17132.9 (checked 2026-10-12).
• The dependent-parent and joint-custody head-of-household credits are not calculated: they need custody and household facts the inputs do not carry. Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).
• Unemployment compensation and Paid Family Leave benefits, which California does not tax, are not calculated: there is no input for them, so such benefits entered as ordinary income are taxed. Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).
• A California taxable amount of an IRA or pension distribution (or a conversion) that differs from the federal one, because California deduction limits or the filer's residence differed in the contribution years, is not calculated: the inputs carry the federal amounts. Sources: 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02).
• The Schedule G-1 special tax on a qualified lump-sum distribution (an election for plan participants of the oldest birth years) is not calculated: the inputs do not say a distribution was a qualified lump sum, and without the election the distribution is taxed at the ordinary rates. Sources: 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02).
• The FTB 3805P additional tax (Form 540 line 63) is calculated on the early distributions with no federal exception given in earlyDistributionException, and an exception given as "other" is read as one California follows. Not calculated: the federal exception California does not follow (qualified recovery assistance distributions: such a distribution given as "other" is wrongly spared the California tax), and the higher California rate on a SIMPLE IRA distribution in the first two years of participation (earlyDistributions is read as subject to the ordinary federal additional tax). Sources: 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 FTB 3805P instructions (checked 2026-11-02).
• The child and dependent care expenses credit (Form 540 line 40, form FTB 3506: the filer, and a spouse on a joint return, must have earned income, so it is figured on care expenses limited to earned income) is not calculated: the inputs carry no care expenses. Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).
• Municipal bond interest: a mutual fund's exempt-interest dividends are exempt only when at least half of the fund's assets are U.S. and California obligations (otherwise the whole dividend is added, Schedule CA line 3), and American Samoa bond interest is added; neither is calculated: give a fund's dividends in the part California treats them as. Sources: 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17133 (checked 2026-10-19).
• Dependents: the young child tax credit (FTB 3514 Part VII; Form 540 line 76) is figured in refundableCredits with a dependent under 6, read as the filer's CalEITC qualifying child (relationship and residence are not inputs); a return with no earned income is tested on federal AGI and investment income only (its net-loss and wage limits are not inputs). Tax year 2026 uses the 2025 amounts (the 2026 inflation-adjusted amounts are not published). Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).
• Itemized deductions from federal Schedule A: the Schedule CA (540) Part II itemized deduction is calculated only when the request carries the federal return's Schedule A (computeFederal with federalItemized, on a full-year resident return; breakdown.deductionChoice reports it); without it the return takes the standard deduction. Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).
• Itemized deduction amounts and rules the federal Schedule A input does not carry are not calculated: mortgage interest on debt above the federal limit up to California's own limit and home-equity interest, the miscellaneous deductions over their floor (the 2026 AGI limitation thresholds are not yet published: the 2025 ones are used), non-cash gifts and carryovers, casualty, gambling and other miscellaneous deductions, investment interest, line 5a income tax that is not the state's own, and the rule that spouses filing separately itemize alike. Sources: Tax News, October 2026: 2026 Indexing (Internet Archive copy of the current edition) (checked 2026-11-02); FTB's Tax News (October 2025) - 2025 Indexing (checked 2026-11-02); 2025 California Form 540 booklet (checked 2026-11-02); California Legislature: RTC section 17054.7 (checked 2026-10-12); Revenue and Taxation Code §17054.7 (senior head of household credit) (checked 2026-10-12); 2025 FTB 3514 Booklet: California Earned Income Tax Credit (checked 2026-11-02); California Revenue and Taxation Code section 17052 (checked 2026-10-12); Tax News (October 2026 edition): Senate Bill 1435 - Specified Date Code Maintenance/Conformity 2025 (checked 2026-10-19); California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) (checked 2026-11-02).

What the engine does not calculate for any state (credits beyond those each page lists, credits for tax paid to other states, state alternative minimum taxes, and more) is listed on the calculation order page.

Verification

Worksheet-tested The engine's test suite replays the 2025 Form 540 line by line, with the FTB's published 2026 indexing (Tax Rate Schedules X, Y and Z, the standard deductions and the exemption credits; the 2026 booklet is not out yet): Schedule CA subtractions (Social Security, the military exclusion and its federal-AGI cliff), the standard deduction, the line 7-9 exemption credits, the tax table by its midpoint method and Schedules X and Y, and the line 62 Behavioral Health Services Tax.

• Golden scenarios (hand-computed expected tax, asserted to within $1): S07, CA-pension-inert, M05, M16, X04, GCA2.
• State-specific unit tests: test_ca_resolves_and_progressive, test_dc_is_included, test_get_by_code_case_insensitive, test_ss_exempt_states_dont_tax_ss, test_ss_wrapper_backcompat, test_roth_conversion_taxed_as_state_ordinary, test_v3_folds_v2, test_none_state_taxes_pension_like_ordinary, test_no_state_uses_placeholder_schedule, test_ca_mhst_over_1m, test_pension_income_inert_and_clamped, test_d5_public_pension_ny_hi, test_dependents_by_state, test_absent_is_unchanged, test_ca_senior_hoh, test_qss_api, test_block_zero_is_180, test_refusals_without_error_pointer, test_applied, test_properties, test_v4_equals_detail, test_legacy_request_equals_v2, test_elsewhere_and_refusals, test_military_tiers, test_military_per_return_caps, test_ca, test_engine_paths, test_prop_p1, test_blind_with_age, test_hoh_and_credit_gaps, test_ca_blind_credit_2026, test_ca, test_builtin_rules_year, test_2025_configs, test_2025_api, test_2025_not_carried, test_2025_round_exact.
• Structural tests covering every state: 14.
• State forms and worksheets followed in the test derivations: Form 540 (2025) lines 13-19, 31 and 62; 2025 California Tax Table and the 2026 Tax Rate Schedules X and Y (the FTB's 2026 indexing); Schedule CA (540) (2025) line 5b military exclusion and line 6 Social Security; Form 540 line 43 code 163 income test on California AGI after the military exclusion (engine 1.8.0).