> you still pay CA taxes on any income earned due to work in CA
I do exactly this. I earn income from a CA company, but live elsewhere. But I wouldn't characterize it as "paying".
Paychex withholds my CA taxes, which then get (nearly) fully refunded a week after filing. It's not exactly "paying" - rather, you're giving a zero-interest loan to the State of California with an average maturity of 6-7 months.
That's one situation, but when I said "earned due to work in CA" I meant work that is physically done in CA, not just work for a CA-based company.
For example, let's say I live in Texas and work for a Texas based company at a salary of $100k/yr. I spend most of my time in Texas, but I travel a lot for work and for 12 weeks of the year, I spend Monday through Friday in California.
Since I am a resident of Texas, I pay taxes on all of that $100k to Texas (but since TX has no income tax, it's moot).
However, I spent 12 weeks of that work in California, making me a nonresident worker in California. I owe CA income tax on $100k * (12 weeks spent in CA / 52 total weeks in a year) = ~$23k. If I have enough deductions in CA to offset that, I might end up owing nothing and any paid taxes might all get refunded to me. But if I don't have enough deductions, I might owe CA some tax money.
I do exactly this. I earn income from a CA company, but live elsewhere. But I wouldn't characterize it as "paying".
Paychex withholds my CA taxes, which then get (nearly) fully refunded a week after filing. It's not exactly "paying" - rather, you're giving a zero-interest loan to the State of California with an average maturity of 6-7 months.