CA/PA married but living and working separately

beltrunner

Hi all,

My wife and I married in November of 2024. For the entire year, we both lived and worked full time in our separate states. I lived/worked in CA and she lived and worked in PA.

My understanding is that it would be in our best interest to file our federal return jointly but separately for the state, and thus to make different FreeTaxUSA accounts to accomplish this. Is this correct? Furthermore, I'm not sure how to approach CA's community property law - is her PA income earned during our marriage in 2024 taxable in CA even though she was a nonresident the whole year?

Thanks so much!