How to properly fill out Form 8958

[SkyeCanyonGator]

I moved to Nevada in Feb 2021 from North Carolina.   I got married in Nov 2021.  My wife and I are filing married, filing separately for 2021.  I'm curious as to how to fill out Form 8958 when it comes to our income.  Technically our "community" earnings are only from Nov 2021 to Dec 31, 2021?   How exactly do we fill out this form if we were only married for about 1.5 months, and all other income was earned while still single?  Or do we just list the entire year's wages from our W-2's and report half?

[MayaD]

The states having community property are Louisiana, Arizona, California, Texas, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. Community property states follow the rule that all assets acquired during the marriage are considered "community property."

Married filing separately in community property states

For instructions on how to complete form 8958, please check the link: Form 8958

[SkyeCanyonGator]

So, does that mean we should only report the wages earned ("acquired") from 11/21/21 thru 12/31/21 on this Form and divide that in half?

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

Your community property income will be your normal income for the year plus or minus an adjustment for your community property income. The adjustment would typically only apply to the income during the time you were married. So, add both of your incomes together for the time you were married and divide that by two. That would be your community property income. 

Add your income received up until you got married to your community property income and that will be the income that should show on your tax return. In TurboTax, you will be asked to add or subtract an amount to your income that you reported to bring your total to the community property income for the year.

For instance, if you earned $5,000 and your spouse earned $10,000 during the time you were married, then your community income would be $7,500 (half of the total.) If you made $50,000 up until you got married, your total reportable income would be $57,500 ($50,000 plus $7,500.) You would have reported $55,000 when you entered you income in TurboTax, so your addition as requested in TurboTax would be $2,500.