I'm amending my 2023 federal and state (California) returns because I want to change my filing status from married filing separately to married filing jointly.
I filled out a new 1040 with the necessary information for my wife and I and used that to complete form 1040-X. I attempted to do the same thing for my state tax return, but I'm a little confused as the 540-X is different than the 1040-X federal form.
In the 1040-X form, everything is separated into three columns. One column for the information from my original 1040 form, a column for the information from my wife's original 1040 form, and a column for the corrected amounts that are reflected by our new 1040 where we are filing jointly.
However the California form 540-X doesn't have separated columns, so do I'm wondering how I account for the fact that I'm taking the sum of two returns originally filed separately, and comparing them against the new 540 that we're filing jointly. For example box 5 says to enter: "Tax paid with original tax return plus additional tax paid after it was filed." -- Since there aren't separate columns to show the the tax I originally paid and the tax my wife originally paid, do I just add those numbers together on my own and put it in that box? Or are my wife and I each supposed to file our own form 540-X? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
