Got married wife relocated to Washington from newyork how to file

[moemahmoud123]

Hi All,

I got married last august. My wife has relocated from NY to WA last July. I was trying to file our taxes but i found myself puzzled by all the information online and need some guidance

Right now, my thought process was that

1. On my account i will file married jointly for our WA income (just federal)

2. On her account she is filing married filing separately for only NY W2 so getting back federal + state taxes

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/ads/it203_information.htm According to this link, NY tax only applies to income she have had during the part she lived in NY, so the above steps i followed to file seem okay? Unless i am misunderstanding and here as well https://www.freetaxusa.com/taxes2019/formdownload?form=ny_th_partyear.pdf 

Is there a better way to file my taxes, i don't want to do anything wrong but don't find much info about spouses who moved, and if i can file jointly for our income in WA but her filing separately for her NY income as per link above for part year residency

Thanks everyone for reading

[TomD8]

You wife cannot file her NY return as Married Filing Separately.  She must file it as Married Filing Joint.  Here is NY's rule regarding your situation:

If you filed a joint federal return and:
1) both spouses are nonresidents but only one has New York
source income, or
2) one spouse is a part‑year resident and the other is a
nonresident with no New York source income,
you must file a joint New York State return using filing status (2) and include in the Federal amount column the joint income as reported on your federal income tax return. However, only the spouse with New York source income (or the part‑year resident spouse) should sign Form IT‑203. That spouse must also complete Form IT‑203‑C, Nonresident or Part-Year Resident Spouse’s Certification (see Other forms you may have to file),
and submit it with your Form IT‑203. In this case, any refund or notice of tax, penalty, or interest due will be issued only in the name of the spouse required to sign Form IT‑203.   

See Page 15, https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it203i.pdf 

[moemahmoud123]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply. I hope you can help me clarify the steps i need to take then since we did not file anything yet. 

From what i am reading of your reply, this is what you are suggesting

Me and my wife can MFJ WA (My and her income in WA)

me and my wife can MFJ NY  (Her NY Federal + State) (Or should we add NY W2 in above step and file all 3 federals then in her second application we file jointly for state return but include our collective house hold income i.e. all WA + NY 

In NY income include reported federal income from filing 1? (Is this our total WA + NY income?) Does turbo tax prompt for this information or we have to figure it out within the online software and manually add it?

Also, is there another way to do above i.e. if i do it in 1 shot i.e. create 1 application, MFJ, add dates she moved, add all our W2-s, would this be right way to file as well, or there are things she has to actively look in online software to sign. Doing it this way could mean much less refund, i am not sure if NY is imposing any income tax on my WA income

Appreciate your insight

[TomD8]

Washington does not have a state income tax.

You file only one federal tax return.

The only state tax return you have to file is New York.

If you file your federal return as MFJ, your wife must file her part-year resident NY return as MFJ, per New York's rules. 

Make sure that your wife enters her information correctly in the personal info section of TT.  Her State of Residence is WA.  She lived in another state (NY) during the year.

Enter both your W-2's exactly as is.  Be sure you indicate which W-2 belongs to you and which to your wife.

When you do the NY return, be sure to choose Married Filing Joint as her filing status.

This should result in the program preparing your returns correctly.

[moemahmoud123]

Hi @TomD8 

First thanks for your quick reply. I followed your comments up until this part and need some clarifying quoting you 

"Enter both your W-2's exactly as is.  Be sure you indicate which W-2 belongs to you and which to your wife.

When you do the NY return, be sure to choose Married Filing Joint as her filing status."

I am not exactly clear on the kind of documents needed when she does NY return. So to recap

What i need to do is file jointly for federal return (My WA, Her WA, Her NY) and we skip states thus get federal return, if this is correct from your view Tom (Please feel free to edit this in your reply)

If above is correct, question what kind of info does she need to supply when she files jointly for state return only? Does she need to provide TT with all our W2's yet again so that it can conclude federal tax income, or she should just provide her NY W2 only this time around. 

Basically is the following sequence correct? If no please help modifying it so i can understand better

1. MFJ (WA+NY) (Add all our W2s NY and WA and file federal only ?) Please correct this if wrong

2. MFJ state return (My wifes account -> she will add all our W2s again ? or just hers?  + my info -> federal refund will show but we should skip when filing and this time and only let state tax go through)

Or : 3 Do MFJ in one go and give TT all our right info and it will figure federal for us and state for her only using my W2 and hers

Appreciate your patience and help 

[TomD8]

Your option (3) is best.  Complete the federal return first, then the NY state return.  Be sure to choose MFJ filing status for both federal and state.