Married, living separate states, filing jointly

[mmchaava]

Tax year: 2015. Wife lived (resident) in VA, 12 months, rented a home, worked full-time, salary received through bank of America, account jointly held in Oklahoma; wife paid taxes to VA Tax Dept. AND Husband lived (resident) in Oklahoma state, 12 months, rented a home, worked part time.  At end of tax year 2015 husband and wife filing jointly.  What is the process for filing jointly using TurboTax? Does wife pay VA and Oklahoma taxes? Wife's W2 shows withholding taxes paid to VA.  Does husband pay VA and Oklahoma taxes? Husband, W2 shows Oklahoma withholding taxes paid. How does this work?

[Carl]

TurboTax 2015 can handle your situation just fine when filing a joint federal return.  Basically, the program will ask each of you individually for your "primary state", and also ask each of you individually if you earned money in a state outside of your primary state. Then from there so long as you read the screens, the whole screen, and pay attention to the small print, you shouldn't have a problem. The important thing for you though, is that when entering your income (such as W-2's) you will be asked something along the lines of what state that income was earned in.  I could go on and on with detail, but it's a waste of your time for me to tell you what the program will ask you for. You'll see as you work it through.

But do be aware that for the 2015 tax return you can not e-file it. Neither federal or state taxes. You'll have to print, sign and mail each tax return separately to the appropriate taxing authority.

If you post back here with more questions or needing more information, then in each post I suggest you make it clear that you are completing a 2015 tax return. Otherwise, someone not reading the whole thread will assume you are working on your 2018 tax return.

[mmchaava]

"TurboTax 2015 can handle your situation just fine""; the reason for this question is that based on experience it is not as simple as that.  Take a look at the instructions provided for a couple filing jointly in 2015: https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901214-how-do-i-prepare-a-joint-federal-return-and-separate-state....

Having used the 2015 desktop (download) Turbotax tool with the instructions provided in the link above, a) the process was cumbersome and b) produced results that one of the states is questioning, four years later.  If I may, let me provide a summary of the outputs when you follow the instructions...

a) The Federal Tax return shows the combined incomes for both husband and wife (H+W); b) the individual state returns show only the income earned by each member in each state.  State 1 returns show the husband's income and not wife's income while state 2 return shows wife's income only.  (See the instructions for preparing the returns.) What ends up happening is that the gross taxable income for each of the states returns differs from the federal return which shows the combined earning.  Let's put hypothetical numbers: Husband, state of Oklahoma, taxable income all earned in OK = $2,300; Wife (income earned in Virginia where she also paid full withholding taxes) = $66,700. Gross 69,000. 

Although the instructions are cumbersome, they are quire clear as provided in the link (https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901214-how-do-i-prepare-a-joint-federal-return-and-separate-state...); however, the outputs appear to be confusing.  How does one close the gaps without filing separately? Your thoughts are invaluable.