I live in New Hampshire but work for a company based in MA. Per our company policy, my W-2 shows the wages I earned working the few days I had to be onsite in MA last year. My husband and I file separately for our federal taxes, but when I went to do the MA state return, it asks for my husband's Federal Gross Income and AGI. I put it in, and now when I get to the end of my return I get to a page asking for an "explanation" for why my income is allegedly much higher than reported. The number it's listing as my income is the combined income for me and my husband. This is not MY income. We are filing separately. It even says "Married Filing Separately" on previous screens. No matter what I do, it keeps combining our income on that final screen.
Do I just write "We are filing separately and that's my husband's income" in the explanation? Do I not need to add his income where requested if we are filing separately? Do I need to file my federal return first?
Also, I'm not even 100% sure I need to do a MA tax return. My total taxed MA income is less than $3,000, but the MA state website says you have to file if "your gross income was more than $8,000 – whether received from sources inside or outside Massachusetts."
Looking for any help I can get here. Everything else in my return went smoothly. I just can't seem to get it to stop combining my income with that of my spouse (who made no money in MA at all!)
