Married filing Jointly but work in different states.

[blackbird27]

Hi,

My wife and I are both Texas residents. My wife works in Texas but I work in Oklahoma. I file a 511NR Oklahoma state return. 

My wife and I file federal taxes jointly, but it seems that joint filing in Oklahoma increases our tax burden as its counting the income that she has earned exclusively in Texas.

Can I file jointly for my federal return and file separately for my Oklahoma state return using only my income? I don't think that in this situation she would have to file an Oklahoma return at all. 

State guidance is unclear as this is the only guidance I found:

The one exception to this rule is if a married couple files a joint federal return but one spouse is a full-year Oklahoma resident and the other is a full-year nonresident civilian (non-military). In this case, they would need to file as married filing separately on their Oklahoma return or file jointly and report all income from both spouses to be taxed at the Oklahoma rate.

However as I mentioned, I'm not a resident of Oklahoma although I do work there exclusively. Any advice would be appreciated.

To sum up:

1. Can I file my Oklahoma state taxes as Married Filing Separately?

2. Does she have to file any kind of Oklahoma state taxes given she earned no income in Oklahoma?

Thanks!

[DavidD66 · Accepted solution]

You will have to file a joint non-resident Oklahoma tax return.  Even though you are filing joint, as a non-resident you will only be taxed on your Oklahoma sourced income.  There will be a section in the Oklahoma return where you will indicate how much of your income is Oklahoma income.  You will only include your income, not your wife's income.