Married filing separately in Massachusetts

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
July 7, 2020
6 replies
51 views

I am in the middle of a really difficult divorce and my soon-to-be-ex-husband is refusing to provide me with any information. We have been living separately since November 2019. I was waiting to file taxes and asked him several times to provide me with his W-2s so I could file. Since he has refused, I'm filing married filing separately. Massachusetts is asking for what his income is. I don't know and I can't find it. If I had that information, I wouldn't be filing separately in the first place! How do I get around this so I can file my Massachusetts taxes timely?

SusanY1

Level 15

I'm sorry that you're going through a tough situation. If your spouse does not agree to file a joint tax return, you cannot file one jointly with your spouse.

I am not sure in what context the Masschusetts return is asking for your spouse's information as I am not seeing that prompt when I try to create a MFS return in the MA software. Can you provide us with more information about where in the program the question is being asked so that we can provide better guidance?

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writeraeriaAuthor

Level 2

Yes I know i cannot file jointly. I never said I was filing jointly. I literally can't file jointly even if I had his consent because I do not have his income information.

When I attempted to submit the Massachusetts state income tax, it popped up that Massachusetts needs my spouse's income information because they want to make sure everything matches even when you file married filing separately. Turbo Tax isn't letting me submit unless I enter a value in for my spouse's federal income.

TomD8

Alumni - Champ

Double-check that you selected Married Filing Separately as the filing status on your state return. When filing separately, you only have to supply your spouse's name and SSN, not his income.

**Answers are correct to the best of my ability but do not constitute tax or legal advice.

writeraeriaAuthor

Level 2

And yes, I have triple checked that I am filing married filing separately. Again, this is for Massachusetts state taxes not federal that i am having this issue.

TomD8

Alumni - Champ

Unfortunately I don't have the Massachusetts software on my computer, so I can't duplicate your situation.

Another user had this suggestion, that might be worth a try:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/how-to-change-state-filing-status/00/671771

Also, make sure you didn't enter anything on your federal return that belonged to your husband, such as a W-2 or 1099. The only information about him that should be on your return is his name and SSN. It seems like something is making the program think you are filing a joint state return.

**Answers are correct to the best of my ability but do not constitute tax or legal advice.