Not sure how to file…

[dezire25]

I married in July of this year. I live and work in Missouri full-time and my husband lives and works in Texas full-time. I have one 18 year old in college which I support and one 16 year old still at home. I am not sure how I need to file. My spouse does not have dependents and Texas does not have state taxes. 

[fanfare]

The current filing year is 2023 so your filing status for 2023  is Single.

@dezire25 

[SteamTrain]

For 2024 taxes (prepared and to be filed in 2025), you may have to file MFS for both Federal and MO state taxes....in order for his income to not be taxed by MO.

MO seems to require filing the same status for MO as you use on a Federal tax return.

Some states allow filing MFJ Federal and MFS state, But in digging thru MO forms and instructions,  I haven't seen anywhere that MO allows that.

_________________________

But I'm not particularly experienced with MO tax rules..., perhaps @robtm  could help here if he is around in this Forum now (this late in the tax season, some Champs take a break), but he apparently knows MO rules better.

[Opus 17]

For 2024, you have the option of married filing jointly or married filing separately.  By filing jointly, you get lower federal tax rates and some deductions and credits are better, but Missouri gets to tax your husband's income.  Filing separately means you file listing your share of deductions and income, and your spouse files listing their share of deductions and income.  You would file a separate return in Missouri but your spouse would not owe state tax since he is in Texas.

You may have the option of filing separately for state but jointly for federal.  This will depend on Missouri law.

@TomD8  may have some additional comments here.

If you want to file jointly federal and separately in Missouri (meaning only you file in Missouri) then you would need two separate tax returns.  It will be more cost effective to buy turbotax to install on your own mac or PC, rather than using the online version.

Lastly, your spouse may have taxable income in Missouri, and be required to file a Missouri tax return, if he performs work while living in or visiting the state--such as, he can work remotely and he works when he comes to visit you.  You will want to review the rules for Missouri non-resident taxes to see what they consider Missouri income and whether there is a minimum or maximum time allowed. 

[TomD8]

MO requires that you use the same filing status that you used on your federal return.  Filing jointly results in a lower overall tax bill for the majority of married couples.

If you married in 2024, then you can file both your federal and your Missouri 2024 tax returns as Married Filing Jointly (MO uses the term "combined" instead of "joint").

If your husband lived in Texas all year and had no earnings from Missouri, then his income is not taxable by MO.  In this situation your MO return should include MO Form MO-NRI.  Form MO-NRI allows you to separate out the portion of your joint income that is not taxable by MO by determining your Missouri income percentage, which is then entered on Line 32 of your MO-1040.  See the instructions for Line 32 on page 10 of the MO-1040 instructions here:

https://dor.mo.gov/forms/MO-1040%20Instructions_2023.pdf

Your MO tax due will be calculated based on your Missouri income percentage.