Minnesota marriage credit

[atdickson]

Many others have asked this question and gotten general, non-helpful answers. When working on my Minnesota taxes in Turbo Tax, it says based on my entries I do not qualify for the marriage credit. However, this appears to not be true. From the instructions on Minnesota form M1MA it states (verbatim): 

You may qualify for the Marriage Credit if all of these are true:
• Your filing status is Married Filing Jointly
• Both you and your spouse have taxable earned income, taxable pension, or taxable Social Security income
• Your joint taxable income on line 9 of your Form M1 is at least $47,000
• The income of the lesser-earning spouse is at least $30,000

All these statements are true in my case. I do not understand why TT says I am not eligible. There are literally no other criteria. Is there something in TT that is causing this to flag as not eligible? Is it a bug? Must I just go to forms in TT and enter the info manually (in which case I am not sure why I am paying for TT)? Seems strange to me. Any help is appreciated.

[atdickson]

I downloaded the form from the MN Dept of Revenue and started filling it out manually just to see how it would go. Turns out there are maximum income caps on the marriage credit. That is, if the income of one spouse is over a certain threshold (which varies depending on the other spouse's income), then the credit is zero. Of course the state of Minnesota doesn't say that part too loudly, and in the requirements no income criteria is listed. It's not until you get the to the actual table and look up the income values that you figure out the credit is zero. TT does not do a good job of communicating this in the program, and of course the state likely intentionally tacit on this fact.

Anyway, hope this can help someone else out as I have not seen this credit described in detail elsewhere on the interwebs.

[AmyC]

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[MHagen]

Exactly my experience.  Thank you.  Interesting bait and switch job Minnesota!  Where can one find the income tables?

[RogerD1]

Follow this link to the Minnesota Marriage Credit.  On this page, you will find a link to Schedule M1MA - click on that link to see that form - the income table will be at the bottom of page 2 on that form.