I am active duty military . but my wife has a w2 for CA and MN. how should i file those?

 
AmyC
Expert Alumni

Tax help for military filers

Please see Military Spouses and State Taxes - Community for you and your wife's resident state(s). File any other earned income under non-resident.

Your resident state taxes all income but gives a credit for income taxed by another state. Please carefully follow these directions.

You will need to prepare all states in a special order. You may need to delete all states and begin again.

  1. First, prepare your non-resident  return(s). This creates your tax liability for the non-resident state. See How do I file a nonresident state return?
  2. THEN prepare your resident state return and it will generate a credit for your income already being taxed in the non-resident state.
  3. The credit will be the lower of the state tax liabilities on the same income. You may owe your resident state.

It isn't possible for the program to create a credit before it knows the liability. Your returns may be wrong if you do not prepare the states in this order.

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