Spouse and I live in different states

[mcohen97]

My wife is a resident of NYC while I am a resident of Texas. I have no income to declare to NY at all and, as stated above, am not a resident. We are filing our federal taxes jointly but I want to file our state taxes separately as I have no income to declare in NY and do not want to be taxed on our combined income. If she files an NYS tax return "Married Filing Separately," do I also have to file one? I can't imagine the answer would be "yes" as I am not a resident and did not work or live in NY at any point, but want to make sure it won't raise any red flags if she files as MFS and the spouse (myself) does not file after.

[DavidD66]

If one spouse is a New York State resident and the other is a nonresident or part-year resident. you must either: (a) file separate New York returns using filing status "single"; or (b) file jointly, as if you both were New York State residents, using filing status "Married Filing Separate".

[mcohen97]

For option a, wouldn't that be a problem my wife is not single?

Additionally, for option b, I'm a bit confused. Would we file jointly as "Married Filing Jointly" for both our Federal and State taxes? Or would we need to each file a separate NYS return as "Married Filing Separately?"

Also, could you just clarify as to whether or not it would be permissible to ONLY file an NYS return for my wife as "Married Filing Separately" and not file one for myself?

Thank you!

[DavidD66]

Yes, your wife can file "Married Filing Separate" and you do not have to file a New York Return.   As for option A, I just copied from the New York Department of Taxation Instructions: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it201i.pdf

[mcohen97]

So, just to be clear, we file our Federal returns MFJ. Then my wife will file an NYS return as MFS and I will NOT file one. 

As an addition, a majority of her business is conducted in MA. Therefore, she must file a state return there as well. Can the MA return be filed as MFJ even if the NYS one is MFS?

Essentially what I'm asking is would the following be permissible:

Federal- MFJ

NY- MFS ONLY wife

MA- MFJ

Thank you!

[ThomasM125]

That would be correct. However, to file married-separate in New York, you will have to complete a separate federal tax return for your spouse so she can file as married-separate on the federal return in order to get the state return populated properly.

You may want to use the desktop version of TurboTax where you can complete several federal returns without having to set up new accounts and pay additional fees for the TurboTax products.

Also, if you file married-joint for New York, your income in Texas will be factored out to some extent, so it may be easier to just do it that way and it shouldn't cost you much in additional tax.