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Returning Member
posted Apr 15, 2025 7:02:27 PM

Joint Capital Gains for Married Filing Separately State Return

I want to file federal taxes jointly with my spouse, but separately for the two states that we are each resident in.  Turbotax Desktop allows adjustments to our 1009-INT and 1099-DIV values as a Nominee for joint accounts, but I do not see a way to do that for stock sales reported on Form 1099-B for our joint brokerage account.  In Forms View, the 1099-B Worksheet shows the Owner of Account coded "J" for Joint, but the Capital Gains/Losses are not being divided in half for our state returns.  What do I have to do to show the correct 50-50 value for capital gains for the state returns?

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4 Replies
Level 15
Apr 15, 2025 7:05:21 PM

FYI - Here's some info on filing Joint for federal and separate for state.  Are you doing it this way?

 

See this article on how to file a joint federal return and file separate state returns…..
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/using-turbotax/help/how-do-i-prepare-a-joint-federal-return-and-separate-state-returns/00/25564


You need to do 3 separate federal returns. One for Joint and 1 for each spouse to do the mock separate federal return to do the separate state returns.

Returning Member
Apr 25, 2025 9:54:17 AM

I did that based on previous guidance before I submitted my question.  As I stated in my initial question, Turbotax Desktop is not dividing joint brokerage account Capital Gains/Losses imported from a 1099-B equally between the filers for a Married Filing Separately return; Schedule D is attributing the total Capital Gains/Losses reported to only one person (as if it was a joint return).  Turbotax does not prompt for a Nominee Adjustment for Capital Gains/Losses the way that it does for interest and dividends.  What do I have to do to show the correct 50-50 value for capital gains for the state returns?

Expert Alumni
Apr 25, 2025 12:44:46 PM

Enter the summary totals for each category into the separate returns so that they will be divided correctly and carry over to the state returns.  Since you are not filing either of these mock returns you do not need to enter the individual sales and you can just enter the totals in each category and cut them in half.

 

@MS461 

Returning Member
Apr 26, 2025 9:22:06 AM

Thank you for your response.  It sounds like I manually have to divide the capital gains/losses for both short and long term in half myself and enter it into the mock returns; the software is not able to do that for me.  Another issue for Turbotax to fix in an update, because if you don't review the final return you will end up overpaying your state taxes in this example.  Can no longer trust their software to calculate taxes correctly.