Married we each own a home

[Kulo]

Married 2024 we each own and live in our own homes, spouse needs hers to be primary residence until she's lived there 2 years to sell so she does not have to pay capital gains tax. We DO live separate. Do i file separately so we each claim our own homes as primary residences? Can this be done?

[Vanessa A]

You can file jointly or separately for federal since you are married.  Living in different homes does not affect this. Unless you are itemizing,  your home does not affect your return.  Do you have dependents and do you each take any types of credits?

If you both have simple returns, then it may not make any real difference on your return how you file.  However, certain credits like the EITC are not available to people filing separate returns. 

If you both have dependents and did not live together for any  part of the last 6 months of the year, then you would possibly make out better filing separate as you would possibly be able to claim head of household but you may also be excluded from certain tax credits. 

Depending on where your homes are, you may or may not be able to file joint returns for your states, primarily if you live in 2 different states.  It will depend on state rules.  Which state or states do you live in?

How Should You and Your Spouse File Taxes? Married Filing Jointly vs Separately

In the end, it may be best to do a mock return to see how you make out best with married filing jointly or married filing separately.  

[Kulo]

Hello, thank you for the quick response.

Both homes are in Michigan and neither of us has dependents, we are just trying to make sure when she sells her home this year so that she qualifies for the capital gains tax exemption by living there for the full 2 years. So we are planning to file married separately each using our own respective addresses. We can do that right?

[MarilynG1]

Yes, you can each file as Married Filing Separately.  You'll need to enter some of your Spouse's info in the Personal Info section.  Both need to use the same deductions (itemized or standard).

@Kulo