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> Merely attending a conference is generally not "CA work" whether or not you take vacation days. Are you sure? A quote from the CA FTB website [1]: > A nonre

> Merely attending a conference is generally not "CA work" whether or not you take vacation days. Are you sure? A quote from the CA FTB website [1]: > A nonresident’s income from California sources includes income from a business, trade, or profession carried on in California. If the nonresident’s business, trade, or profession is carried on both within and outside California and the part outside California is separate and distinct from the part within California, only income from the part conducted within California is California source income. If you're a salaried employee and you're attending a conference in California and being paid for those days when you're attending, why wouldn't that be considered California source income? > However, presenting at a conference is work. You mean if you are getting paid for said presentation? I agree that that one is 100% clearly taxable by California and would probably have been reported to the FTB by the conference organizers. I'm talking about situations where you don't make any additional income beyond your normal salary paid by your employer. If you meant salary received during unpaid presentations too, I'm curious what you think would differentiate that from merely attending the conference for work. [1] https://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/fileRtn/Nonresidents-Part-Year-Residents.shtml#BusinessIncome https://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/fileRtn/Nonresidents-Part...

gamblor956 7y ago
Because it's not work... unless your job involves going to conferences. And if it was work then taking a vacation day to go to a conference on the company's dime would be taxable. If you're in doubt you can just call the FTB. Despite what others are saying in these comments, they are actually quite responsive and helpful.
- throwaway818283 7y ago
  > Because it's not work... unless your job involves going to conferences. Right, I'm talking about professional conferences related to one's work, otherwise presumably you'd be taking vacation days to attend them. And what defines "work" if it's not whatever I'm getting paid for? Like, if I spent a work day sitting on my ass eating snacks and watching YouTube, that's definitely not "work" in the colloquial sense, but I doubt FTB would be happy if I tried to avoid paying taxes on my salary for that day because I wasn't "working". I'd think going to a conference is a far clearer cut case in the "work" column than that.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    Right, I'm also talking about professional conferences... I don't have the bandwidth to try and explain why attending a professional conference as a non-presenter isn't work but sitting all day watching Youtube at your office is for out-of-state tax purposes. I will say this: of the literally hundreds of millions of people that have attended professional conferences in CA as non-presenters, the CA FTB has never tried to tax them. If that's not sufficient evidence for you to accept what I'm saying, nothing is short of you hiring a tax lawyer to explain it to you in detail.

gamblor956 7y ago

Because it's not work... unless your job involves going to conferences. And if it was work then taking a vacation day to go to a conference on the company's dime would be taxable. If you're in doubt you can just call the FTB. Despite what others are saying in these comments, they are actually quite responsive and helpful.

throwaway818283 7y ago
> Because it's not work... unless your job involves going to conferences. Right, I'm talking about professional conferences related to one's work, otherwise presumably you'd be taking vacation days to attend them. And what defines "work" if it's not whatever I'm getting paid for? Like, if I spent a work day sitting on my ass eating snacks and watching YouTube, that's definitely not "work" in the colloquial sense, but I doubt FTB would be happy if I tried to avoid paying taxes on my salary for that day because I wasn't "working". I'd think going to a conference is a far clearer cut case in the "work" column than that.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  Right, I'm also talking about professional conferences... I don't have the bandwidth to try and explain why attending a professional conference as a non-presenter isn't work but sitting all day watching Youtube at your office is for out-of-state tax purposes. I will say this: of the literally hundreds of millions of people that have attended professional conferences in CA as non-presenters, the CA FTB has never tried to tax them. If that's not sufficient evidence for you to accept what I'm saying, nothing is short of you hiring a tax lawyer to explain it to you in detail.