Federal MFJ with Tax Domicile in VA but residency in NYC
I lived and earned my income in NYC for the entire year in 2024 but still maintain a Virginia domicile - home ownership, voter registration, etc. My spouse remained in Virginia the entire tax year and earned income in Virginia. If we file federal taxes jointly and I must claim residency for NY State and city taxes, how do we use freetaxusa to file Virginia taxes?
Since Virginia will apply a credit for taxes paid to NY, Can we both just claim residency for two states?
Answers
-
@Bobs,
There are several things to take into consideration here.1) If you maintain a domicile in VA, but live full-time in NY, are you considered a resident of VA, NY, or both?
2) Do NY and VA each allow you to file using a different filing status (MFJ vs MFS), if needed?
3) If they don't allow you to file using a different status, are you able to allocate your wages and/or claim a credit for taxes paid to another state?The criteria for VA residency can be found here:
The criteria for NY residency can be found here under "How do I know if I am a resident of New York State for income tax purposes?":
If you determine that you are a resident of both states and your wife is a resident of VA, you will next need to consider the second point.
For VA, "In most cases, your filing status will be the same as the one you selected on your federal return." However, "If one spouse is a Virginia resident and the other is a nonresident, you may not file a joint Virginia return unless you both elect to determine your joint Virginia taxable income as if you were both Virginia residents. If the spouses do not make an election, the resident spouse will file either Form 760 or Form 760PY, while the nonresident spouse will file Form 763, if applicable."
See Pages 8 - 9 atFor NY, "In most cases, you must use the same filing status you used on your federal return." However, "The only exceptions are for certain married couples filing a joint federal return in the following situations:
• One spouse is a New York State resident and the other is a nonresident or part-year resident. In this case, you must either:
o file separate New York returns using filing status 3 (MFS); or
o file jointly, as if you both were New York State residents, using filing status 2 (MFJ)."
See Pages 4-5 atIf you do end up filing jointly on each return; federal, VA and NY; you will be able to file all returns within one account on FreeTaxUSA.
However, things may get a little tricky when claiming credit for taxes paid to another state, since you would be indicating that you and your spouse are residents of both states. Each state will want to tax you on the income sourced from within their own state and will provide a credit for taxes paid to the other state for non-state sourced income. The tricky part will be determining pro-rata portion of taxes to report for a credit on each state return. If you aren't able to determine this on your own, I recommend upgrading to our Pro Support product for the assistance and advice from our Pro team.
If you file MFJ on your federal return and need to file MFS on one or both state returns, it will require that you have two or three accounts on FreeTaxUSA.
Account #1: Your joint federal return (and joint state return, if any)
Account #2: MFS state return; income on this account will be reported for just one spouse for the state where you are a resident
Account #3: MFS state return, if you end up filing separately for both states; income on this account will be reported for the other spouse for the state where they are a resident
0
