My husband and I are both active duty military. My home state is Oklahoma and his is Wisconsin. I never owed state taxes before when I did my taxes but I do now? Why?

[masq0591]

If I have been submitting wrong or if filing separate is better, please let me know.

[SusanY1]

Hi!  I would love to help you with this but need just a bit more information.  In which state do you currently reside?  To which state are you showing a balance due? 

[SteamTrain]

We'd probably need someone to comment (this is a public forum) who knows OK and WI tax laws for handling that.

1)  For your situation, some state's forms allow a military couple with domiciles in two different states, to file Federal MFJ, and State MFJ, but the state forms then allow you to remove the other spouse's income during the State interview.  (NC works this way)

2)  In other cases, the states involved let you file MFJ-Federal, but then require you to file the State-MFS to delineate each particular spouse's own income.   To do that, you would need the Desktop software, so that you could prepare  two MFS-Federal tax files (that are not filed) to generate the MFS-State forms for each state...that would be required to be mailed in on paper.

3) or a mixture of #1 and #2

So it depends on what WI and OK  require in your situation.  But it may also  be further complicated for you, since WI is also a community property state....which mixes your income, even if you file MFS-State.

____________________

Is this (2019) the first year you are married? Or have you filed MFJ before.  If you just got married in 2019, and  it gets too messy, you might seek a local tax professional who can parse out those differences.

[MarilynG1]

If you have filed jointly in your respective states previously and did not owe state taxes, compare your return to last year's return, both Federal and State.  

There were tax changes last year, or you may have more income (or less witholding) than last year, but comparing the two returns will help you pinpoint the source. 

Don't discount a data entry error, or a box that should have been checked (or unchecked).  Much of the data in your state return is populated from entries in your Federal return. 

Military spouses can designate one state as their home state, and file MFJ to that state, which makes state taxes easier. 

Click the link for more detailed on on Military Spouses and State Taxes.