So I lived in Michigan all of 2019, my wife moved from Virginia to Michigan in November 2019. So we're planning to file as follows:
- MFJ Federal
- MFJ Michigan (requires same filing status as federal)
- MFS Virginia (required by VA, just my wife)
The problem is our Michigan refund. Right now in TurboTax, having a file with MFJ returns for Federal/Michigan/Virginia results in a Michigan refund of $3,916 (I have made sure that the Michigan income is allocated to Michigan, and the Virginia income allocated to Virginia). If I remove the Virginia return entirely from this file, I end up owing about $200 to Michigan.
I'm not sure why my Michigan refund is being affected by my Virginia tax filing. The way I see it right now, there are two approaches in Turbotax:
- File 1: MFJ Federal/Michigan/Virginia --> e-File Federal and Michigan, don't file Virginia
- File 2: MFS Federal/Virginia --> don't file Federal, paper file Virginia
OR
- File 1: MFJ Federal/Michigan --> e-File Federal and Michigan
- File 2: MFS Federal/Virginia --> don't file Federal, paper file Virginia
So I guess my question is whether or not I should be keeping the 'dummy' MFJ Virginia return in File 1. It seems to be helping me out quite significantly on my Michigan refund, but I don't know if it's accurate.
