My spouse and I moved from GA to MA at the different date in 2018.

[grissom-h]

My spouse and I moved from GA to MA at the different date in 2018. I have income in both GA and MA and my spouse has income only in GA earned while living in GA. Do we need to file MA state return separately or we can still file it jointly?

[DanielV01 · Accepted solution]

You must file Massachusetts using the status of Married Filing Separately.  This is a Massachusetts requirement for a part-year married couple when the spouses have different residency periods.  Since you did not move to MA on the same day, you must file as Married Filing Separately in Massachusetts.  

The following FAQ gives instructions on how you may do this (you may wish to obtain desktop software and transfer your online file to desktop to do this):  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3301995

[grissom-h]

Thanks for your answer. I understand that I should file MA state tax as Married Filing Separately. Is this the same for state tax in GA? Or we can file GA tax Married Filing Jointly? We moved from GA to MA at different date.

[DanielV01]

I believe in Georgia you have the option to file joint or separate, even though you have the different date periods.  But MA requires separate returns.