2025 Missouri State Return with Non-Resident

[vidis12]

I live in MO and I am US citizen my spouse lives and works in UK. This is the first year we are filling with MFJ election on federal returns, with statement to do so, which brings spouses foreign income into consideration. It's fairly straight forward for federal returns, but surprisingly got an issue with the state returns. 

     It's MO state and since it requires to file both 1040 long and 1040-NRI, for some odd reason neither forms and specifically NRI form does not have an option to use foreign address to show spouses residency. Furthermore, it also requires to put which state spouse's residency was for the tax year if showing non-resident for MO. Software seems to default to putting the same address for both of us on both forms pulled from Federal Return form. 

     This brings two questions, does it matter if address on the forms for both of us is the same Missouri address or should spouses address be listed with foreign address even if MO-NRI form address field is formatted for US address only.

    Second question, what about State field on the form to indicate which state spouse was resident for the tax year. Should that be left blank or just put any random state?

[DaveF1006]

Yes, it's perfectly fine to use the Missouri address for both of you on the MO-NRI form.  For your second question, most practitioners recommend entering "FO" (for Foreign) or "UK" in that box.

If the software blocks "UK": If the software requires a 2-letter U.S. state code and won't let you leave it blank, you should use "ZZ" (the standard code for foreign/other) or simply your own state (MO). 

The purpose of that box is to tell Missouri which other jurisdiction has the right to tax that income. Since the UK isn't a U.S. state, "ZZ" or "FO" is the most accurate. If the software requires you to choose from the dropdown, pick Missouri—even if it doesn’t seem right. Then, on the Income Allocation screen of the MO-NRI, set your spouse’s Missouri income to 0%.

One final note. Since you are filing a federal MFJ election for the first time, Missouri requires you to attach a copy of your Federal Return. If you are e-filing, the software usually attaches this automatically. If you end up having to paper-file due to the foreign address issue, make sure to include a copy of that signed election statement you prepared for the IRS.