2023 Tax Filing

[rmtowery]

Daughter is married to a Naval Service Member stationed in Georgia.  Her state of residency is Texas which has no income tax filing requirements.  Daughter worked in Georgia and has her wages and withholding on her

W-2.

Is she required to file a Georgia State return?

[DoninGA]

As a military spouse she is allowed to use the military members state of residence if she chooses to do so.  If the military member's State of Legal Residence is not Texas or another state that does not have a personal income tax, then she is required to file a Georgia state tax return since she has Georgia sourced income.

See this TurboTax support FAQ - https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/state-taxes/military-spouses-state-taxes...

[rmtowery]

Thank you for your quick reply.  If her gross was $22,000 and had $893 withheld for state of GA, does it make sense that TurboTax says she owes $3553 to the state?  Does her husband's income matter for her state return? 

He shows Calif as his state of residence and owes them nothing since he earned $0 in that state. Their fed return shows a refund.

I'm confused and it's the first time doing taxes for her since she has not worked for 12 years. 

[ThomasM125]

The tax due seems excessive. Most likely you are filing married-joint in Georgia, whereas you should be filing a non-resident return as married-separate. You need to start a new return in TurboTax for Georgia and just enter your information on the federal part and file as married-separate. So, you will have two TurboTax returns, one for the federal as filing joint and a separate one for Georgia as married-separate. You can purchase the desktop version of TurboTax if you want to avoid having to pay for two returns, as you can file multiple returns with the desktop TurboTax. You may have to mail in the Georgia return as you may not be able to e-file it without e-filing the federal return.

[DoninGA]

She should be filing the Georgia state income tax return as Married Filing Separately since her spouse is a nonresident and does not have any Georgia sourced income.   She still should be filing the federal tax return as Married Filing Jointly.

The reason the for the high amount of taxes was because she is filing Married Filing Jointly on the Georgia tax return and her spouse's income is being included on the state return.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for filing separately on a state return and jointly on a federal return - https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/small-business-processes/prepare-joint-f...