California FTB has released the 2010 state tax brackets. The brackets are all “indexed,” adjusting them to reflect changes in the California CPI.

Filing requirement thresholds, standard deduction, and some other credits were adjusted at the same time as income tax brackets, based on California’s inflation rate of 0.9 percent, measured by the California Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers from June 2009 to June 2010. Last year California had a deflation rate of 1.5 percent.

Some of the changes to various items:

2010 Amounts
2009 Amounts
Standard deduction for single or “married filing separate” taxpayers
$3,670
$3,637
Standard deduction for joint, surviving spouse, or head of household taxpayers
$7,340
$7,274
Personal exemption credit amount for single, separate, and head of household taxpayers
$99
$98
Personal exemption credit amount for joint filers or surviving spouses
$198
$196
Renter’s Credit is available for single filers with adjusted gross incomes
$34,722 or less
$34,412 or less
Renter’s Credit is available for joint filers with adjusted gross incomes
$69,443 or less
$68,824 or less

A new tax law sets the dependent exemption credit for tax years 2009 and 2010 to the indexed personal exemption credit of $99.

The California Franchise Tax Board also provides minimum filing requirement thresholds to ensure that most people who will not owe taxes are not required to file a tax return. FTB adjusts these tables each year to include the added senior exemption and the dependent exemption credits. For example, most single people under 65 years old with no dependents would not need to file a state return until they have adjusted gross income of $11,803 or more compared to last year’s threshold of $11,698 or more.

The Joint Custody Head of Household Credit, Dependent Parent Credit, and Qualified Senior Head of Household Credit are also affected by indexing.

More information about the 2010 tax rates and exemptions and other tax matters is available at ftb.ca.gov.