Newly married (filing jointly) - one spouse lived in different state prior - does other spouse need to be on that state's tax return?

[Scruffy Paws]

My husband and I got married at the end of last year.  Prior to that I lived in Illinois and after I moved up to be with him in Wisconsin.  As such, this year I'm filing in both Illinois and Wisconsin.  We ran the filing both ways and it was more beneficial to file jointly so that's what we are doing.  Also, I'm mailing the returns for IL in since it won't let me e-file because my husband doesn't have an IL driver's license nor did he file in IL previously.

My first question is... I noticed on the Illinois forms printed from TurboTax that it is listing both our names (me first and him second since I did the taxes and so am the primary taxpayer) and then just lists my social security number anywhere there is only one field for that.  I'm assuming that's correct??  It looks odd like I should take his name off of there since he has nothing to do with Illinois other than marrying me.

My main question is... the TurboTax instructions are also saying I need to mail my W-2s and 1099-Rs with the return.  My husband didn't make any money in IL, so do I need to include his as well or just mine?  The verbiage on the TurboTax instruction sheet just says "Attach your W-2, W-2G and 1099-R forms to page 1 of Form IL-1040"

[DianeC958]

For Illinois return you should file as Married Filing Separate since your husband did not live in Illinois during 2019 if you moved to Wisconsin during 2019 the Illinois return should be a part year resident return.  

Then you would file as Married Filing Joint with you husband showing that you were only a part year resident of Wisconsin.

In order to file as Married Filing Separate for Illinois you will need to create a Married Filing Separate return for yourself for the Federal and then have the information flow to the state of Illinois.  You will not file the Federal Return as you can still file as Married Filing Joint for the Federal, you just need the information to file your state of Illinois return correctly.

To create the additional Federal returns you need it will save you money to use the Desktop version of TurboTax since you can create 5 Federal Returns with no additional cost.

To do the same thing in TurboTax online you would need to create a new account.

To send the information to Illinois you do not need to include your husband's W-2's or other tax documents since he did not have any income for Illinois.

[Scruffy Paws]

One additional question.  Is it required to file with different statuses in this case?  Our tax benefits are slightly better if we file jointly for Illinois although not huge so I'm just trying to figure out if that's just an option for filing that way or the way the government would prefer/require.

[KatrinaB48 · Accepted solution]

The state of Illinois allows a married couple to choose the filing status that is most beneficial in this case. Please view the second bullet point on the Illinois revenue page for more information.