We're planning for married filing separately (MFS) for federal taxes, but married filing jointly (MFJ) for Arizona state taxes.
I'm confident this is allowed legally:
See TurboTax answer from 2019 , and AZ Dept. of Revenue "You may file a joint return, even if you and your spouse filed separate federal returns."
How can I do this with TurboTax download/desktop?
This TurboTax answer describes the converse situation: How do I prepare a joint federal return and separate state returns? , and I suspect the same logic works for my case (separate federal, joint state).
It also links to this, saying a state return can't be e-filed unless there's first a corresponding federal e-file: Can I e-file my state return before my federal?
So it seems we should make 3 "mock" returns: one MFJ, and two MFS (one per spouse), then e-file the two MFS for federal, and paper file the one MFJ for state.
Can anyone confirm if this will work, or if there's a better way?
