RDP in Washington - How to fill out form 8958

[mobitinker]

My girlfriend and I (male) are registered domestic partners (RDP). We live in WA which has no income tax to be filed. I file as Single. She files as Single Head of Household. Basically she has W2 income and I have SSA, rental (house owned by me) and IRA distributions.

TT filled out form 8958 for  both of us but did not split any amounts, community income or not.  I expected it to do so for W2 and SSA income.

Are we supposed to allocate amounts ourselves? If we do, will the allocations automatically show in our respective taxable incomes on form 1040?

TT is a little confusing in this area.

Thanks!

[xmasbaby0]

It is not clear what you are trying to accomplish or why you want to use form 8958---- which is for married couples who are filing married filing separately in a community property state.  You are unmarried and say that you are filing Single on your federal return.    And one of you is filing Head of Household?----Is the person who is filing HOH claiming a qualified dependent?   In order to file as Head of Household you must have a blood-related qualified dependent.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

Here's the problem.

According to the IRS, you are both unmarried, and you will file single, unless one of you qualifies to file as HOH.  However, because Washington is a community property state, and extends community property rights to RDPs, state law requires that you divide your federal income using community property rules even though you are filing single.

@xmasbaby0 

See the instructions for form 8958. 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8958.pdf

This is not a situation that Turbotax handles well.  There is a blog post you should start with.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/tax-tips-for-registered-domestic-partners-and-unmarrie...

You may need to call customer support and ask to speak to an expert familiar with using form 8958 for RDPs in a community property state.  Or maybe one of the other Champs is more familiar with this situation. 

[mobitinker]

I would call this a bug in TT.  In order to fill in numbers for 8958 one needs to search topics for "Community Property Worksheet". The interview there fills out 8958. For my case it looks like TT correctly determined what income is community, based on my readings about RDPs and community income. From there, search topics for "Community Property". That allows for input of adjustment amounts for community income and withholding. The amounts must be calculated by hand by looking at 8958 so that partners are sharing 50% each. They get push to your 1040 form. 

We're going in to HR Block on this. I'll update if I find out anything new or different.