I moved from Florida (no state tax) to California. My questions is how do I claim sales tax paid in Florida (since there was no state tax paid) and state income tax paid in California on my 1040 schedule A line 5 as I am only allowed to claim one or the other. The amount of state income tax I paid in California is much higher than California sales tax (if I were to claim sales tax).

You get to pick one, and only one - either sales tax (pro-rated between the two states using their respective sales tax rates for the time you lived in each) or state income taxes paid, but not both. You can't choose to use sales tax from Florida and income tax from CA.

Thanks for your response ebaines.

Since Florida has no state income tax and the amount of state income tax I paid in California is higher than Florida sales tax which I could claim, I will claim the California state income tax.