Reside in NH, work in NH & ME, filing jointly

[ski83]

My family & I have lived in NH (No state income tax) for several years and both my husband and I have worked in NH the entire time. I've obtained a job working in ME (has state income tax) but haven't accepted the offer yet due to finding out the amount of taxes that are taken out, as well as rumors that when filing jointly, both my husband and I's income will be taken into account & be required to pay out more taxes, even though we both live in NH & he works in NH as well. Any insight if this is true information? Would we be better off married filing separately? 

[DMarkM1 · Accepted solution]

No, typically you would not be better off using Married Filing Separate status.  For ME taxpayers who are married and file a joint federal return and both are non-resident in ME and only one has ME income that taxpayer may file as SINGLE in ME and only use their income.  The Schedule NRH is used to separate married filers' incomes and then determine the main portion of that filer's income.   Here is the ME tax reference.

The other option is to file jointly in ME with all income and the ME tax forms will determine the ME portion of all the income. 

You can figure your ME tax both ways and select which is better for you.