My wife lived and work in a different state for 6 months

[segandham]

I lived and worked in California from 1/1/2021 to 12/31/2021. All the income I made in 2021 is from California.

My wife is a housewife till 07/31/2021 and stayed with me in California.

My wife moved to Maryland on 08/01/2021 to start her new job, I stayed back in California till 12/31/2021 and continued in my job. How do we file taxes? Federal jointly and states separately?

[LeonardS]

You will want to file using the method that gives you the lowest tax liability as a family unit.  The only way to know for sure is to create test returns, one for each spouse, and compare the bottom lines. Be sure to also prepare the state return so you can get a complete tax picture.

If you use TurboTax CD/Download there's is a quick way to get a comparison.  This link https://How can we compare married filing jointly with married filing separately?  has information you may find useful if you use the CD/Download version.