First, be aware that I am not a tax professional by any stretch of the imagination. Just because I've been dealing with rental property for 30 plus years does not hold any weight on the legal front.
Being that Ohio is not a community property state, I see no problem with you reporting all the rental stuff on your tax return. If your prior year return was joint, you can expect to have issues with importing from that prior year's tax file, since you'll have to "work it through" to delete all the spouse's data. When done, check that all the imported rental information has not been changed; things like cost basis, prior year's deprecation and current year's depreciation.
Do take note that if you are filing separate thinking it will reduce your combined tax liability , you may find that it does exactly the opposite. When a married couple files separate, you both automatically lose a number of credits and deductions you'd otherwise qualify for if you filed joint.
- No education credits
- for selling the rental property, if you both qualify for the "2 of last 5" capital gains exemption, the amount allowed is cut in half.
- No child care credits if you have dependents.
... and quite a list of other things that I just can't recall right now off the top of my head.
