Here is the situation.
I am married filing jointly (my wife received ITIN number), however my wife was foreign national for all of 2022. I was largely living in a foreign country between 2017-2022, but returned to California in late June of 2022. My wife stayed in the foreign country for the whole time except for a 2-week trip to the US. Did maintain a California driver's license and permanent address but I also had a permanent resident card in the foreign country.
On 2021, I did end up paying for California tax because I was using a CPA in a foreign country who was helping me with the ITIN process for my wife (otherwise I would have done it myself). Even back then when I discussed it with the CPA, it wasn't clear to me whether I was responsible for state tax, but I just paid it to be safe back then.
Tried my best to answer truthfully on both Turbotax and Freetaxusa (including questions about how long each of us spent time in California in 2022, whether we had health insurance or not etc.), and both seemed to agree that I don't owe California taxes. But some questions felt kinda iffy, like whether I started my California residency in 2022, to which I answered yes.
This is solely for investment income (capital gains on stock sales) and not W2.
Thanks for the help!
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