Spouse moved states Sept '24 & I followed Jan '25 - best filing status to maximize CA state tax refund for wife?

[CAtoCO]

Wife's company moved us from CA to CO Sept 1, 2024; she moved with our 3 kids under 18 and I stayed in CA to finish work & moved 1/3/2025. I'm over 65 and have past tax issue in CA (pre-dates marriage; no active tax lien & past 10 year limit to record one) which means our CA refunds are kept by CA FTB in the years we're due refund so we try to owe money to CA at tax time. We've been filing with status Married Filing Jointly. She needs to file both CA and CO state tax returns; I only need to file CA state tax return because I didn't work in or permanently move to CO until 1/3/2025.

We want to maximize the refund due from CA on taxes withheld from her wages. Should we file this year as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately? Is it a better idea this year to pay a professional to do our taxes given the odd situation and return to self-preparation again for 2025 when things are simpler?

[MaryK4]

The only way to know for sure 100% if the best filing status is to prepare the returns with the different scenarios (which of course takes a lot of time).  In general, Married filing Joint produces the best tax except in rare situations.  Based on your details, I would recommend filing joint because California is a community property state, so you would also have to account for the community income for the time your wife was a California resident.  On your state returns, you will be able to indicate the income that is taxable to the state (state source for nonresident period and all income for time as resident), so you will not get double taxed at the state level.

As far as the California refund, since filing joint usually results in lower tax, filing the California state joint will get you the better result.

If you are preparing the return, you can come back here to the Community and ask for guidance, or with TurboTax, you can always switch to have a professional prepare for you.