I am a resident of California and my only income are from California sources. In 2017 October, my wife moved to Illinois for work and started living there and has income from both California and Illinois sources. For filing the state tax returns, should I and my wife file married filing separately for California, and does she only file married filing separately for Illinois? Or can we file married filing jointly in California and she files married filing separately for Illinois?
P.S. We would file jointly file for the Federal return. Thanks.
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If you and your spouse are filing a joint federal return but you work in or are residents of different states, you may need to file separate state returns. Sometimes this is required by state tax law; other times it is to your best interest to not include your non-resident spouses income on your state return. Otherwise both states may try to tax the same income.
The calculations you need to do can be done in TurboTax online, but it is easier to do them with the desktop software. And you can file up to 5 returns using the desktop software. It will be tedious, but it is the best way to accurately minimize your taxes.
Please follow these instructions from TurboTax on this
subject:
Be sure to name each TurboTax federal return so you know the MFJ federal return to file, and which mock MFS federal and state return is for which person.
Note: State returns prepared using the "Mock" federal returns will require you to print and file your state return by mail.
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