Get your taxes done using TurboTax

New York is one of the states that allows separate filing even when the Federal return is filed jointly. I have not been advised of any problem with this process for New York. If deleting the problem form NY-IT-201 didn't resolve the issue, please provide more details.

To prepare a joint Federal return and separate State returns in TurboTax:

You can use TurboTax Online to file separate state returns, but we recommend you use the TurboTax Desktop software version to do this because you'll only need to pay for one TurboTax product (you can file up to five returns).

Tip: If you already started your return in TurboTax Online, we recommend that you transfer your tax file to the Desktop version. You'll save time by entering less information.

Here's a brief overview of the procedure (see the sections below for detailed steps):

1. Prepare one married filing jointly (MFJ) return to file with the IRS.
2. Prepare a mock married filing separate (MFS) return for each taxpayer. This is for your records only and will be used to generate separate state returns for each person. The mock federal returns are not filed.
3. Then, for the first taxpayer, label and use the first mock MFS federal return to prepare their state MFS return. Use only their income and their half of the deductions from the MFJ federal return.
   • This ensures that TurboTax only transfers the first taxpayer's income to their married filing separate state return.
4. File this MFS state return, not the mock federal return that it pulls the information from.
5. For the second taxpayer (spouse), label and use the second "mock" MFS federal return to prepare their state MFS return. Again, use only their income and their half of the deductions from the MFJ federal return.
6. File the second MFS state return, not the second mock federal return that it pulls the information from.

Be sure to name each TurboTax federal return so you know the MFJ federal return to file, and which mock MFS federal and state return is for which person.

See this TurboTax help article for more information about filing a joint Federal return and separate State returns. 

@kdane5184