First time married filing jointly

tngrl — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:15:51 GMT

I'm doing my son's taxes which are fairly straight forward for the most part. However, he was married in November 2023 and so this is the first time they will be filing married, jointly. I did both of their returns last year so I have all the previous info I need for both of them and I imported his prior year, knowing I just need to add what I need to off her previous return/current forms. I have two questions.

1. In TT, when I'm adding her info in, there is a question: Spouse lived in another state in 2023. Technically for residency rules she didn't. However, she did go to law school Jan-May in Vermont (we are in TN). Do I answer that yes because physically she did or no because by residency rules she did not?

2. She worked while she was in school in Vermont and I know she will need to file as a non-resident (we did this last year). What I don't know is what filing status I will need to list for her in Vermont. Normally if you file federal, married/joint, you need to do the same on state taxes. However, they do have a rule in Vermont that if one spouse is a resident and the other is a non-resident with no Vermont income at all, they can file married/separate for state even if they filed married/joint for federal. In our case, neither is an actual resident but one does have Vermont income and one does not. I can't find any actual rules on such a situation but I would assume she could file married/separate just like she could if she was a resident. Does this seem correct? This is really the only confusing thing to their taxes since the state of TN doesn't even have income tax. And, maybe all will be clear once I get to the state stuff in TT but I like to see what is coming myself. I typically use the software for ease but like to know the actual rules as if I was doing it without software.

Thanks in advance.

Re: First time married filing jointly

AmyC — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 23:06:39 GMT

1. School does not count, it is a temporary absence from home.

2. No, MFJ and only enter the VT income for taxation.

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First time married filing jointly

Re: First time married filing jointly