2021 Moved NYC to NJ with spouse – one eventually changed jobs and one didn't

[st4545]

In May 2021 my husband and I moved from NYC to NJ and had different job situations. We filed a joint federal return, but I'm struggling with the state returns.

I worked at the same job (NYC company) the full year (as both an NYC and NJ resident). My husband worked at an NYC company until December, when he switched to an NJ company, so he worked:

• for an NYC company as an NYC resident, Jan-April 2021
• for an NYC company as an NJ resident, May-early December 2021
• for an NJ company as an NJ resident, late December 2021

How do I enter this on Turbotax? I've been going in circles and keep hitting walls because our situations are different! How many returns do I need to fill out and in what order?

[ThomasM125]

The best thing to do may be to file your federal return jointly and then file married-separate for both state returns. To do this, you will need three federal returns, one for each state to file separate on them,  and a third joint return to submit to the IRS.

You may find it advantageous to purchase the desktop version of TurboTax to do this as you can file multiple tax returns for the same cost since you will be using the same product for each return. 

It may be helpful to do the joint federal return first, then make a copy of that return and back out the entries for one spouse for each state return.