Im a new york resident my wife is a California resident

[mlex23]

I am a resident of NYC all my income is earned in nyc. My wife is a resident of California and all her income is earned in California. We own a home in california which is where she lives and I rent an apartment in nyc. We want to file our federal taxes jointly and our state separately.

From what i understand nyc allows me to file my federal taxes jointly and state separately from my wife.

California, on the other hand, requires us to file jointly even though none of my income was earned in the state.

(i am not military) I earn more than my wife and if I am understanding this correctly.....she will have to report half of our total income to the state of california since it is a community income state. I dont understand how that is possible because that would mean I am paying taxes twice on some of my income earned. I thought that could not happen. Can someone walk me through how I can file correctly and what my next steps are?    

[MarilynG1]

You are correct that California requires you to file with the same filing status as your federal return.

Since you indicate in the MY INFO section your state residency, you will be considered a non-resident of California, and you will be able to exclude your New York income from CA taxation.

Your income will only be taxed in New York, so you're not double taxed.  CA will give you a credit for tax paid to NY. 

Prepare a mock MFS Federal return for yourself to flow into your separate NY return.

Carefully proceed through the CA interview, where you will be able to separate out non-resident items of income, credit, etc. that don't apply to CA.  

Here's some info on Filing Separate States.

@mlex23

[Edited 3/26/2024 | 9:40 am]