Married filling jointly but spouses living and working in different states

Nik

I live in Wisconsin (full-time resident) whereas my wife lives in Georgia (full-time resident). I had no income in georgia and my wife had no income in wisconsin. Federal taxes looks straightforward but filling state taxes are complicated right now. We are trying not to get double taxed in both states. Georgia is allowing a straightforward filling on freetaxusa but since wisconsin is a community property state, it is very confusing. The software is not letting us split the income. It is showing us that it will need to filed on paper. Is there a solution?

JohnV

Hello Nik, To accommodate your and your spouse's differing state residencies, you would have to create 3 accounts with FreeTaxUSA. You cannot file joint for federal, and file separately for the states in one account.

For the first account, you can enter both income and file joint federal tax return.

For the second account, you would file separately and report your income so that the State of WI can tax on your resident income.

For the third account, the spouse would file separately to report her income so that the State of GA can tax on her resident income.

You can find the article that may help clarify the situation here: https://community.freetaxusa.com/kb/articles/308-what-if-my-spouse-lived-in-a-different-state

As for your question about WI community property state and the equal division of income, that is only applicable if both are residents of WI. Since your spouse is not a resident of WI, you each can report your separate income to each state of residency.

Nik

I read upon the article you suggested. Is it possible if we file jointly in Georgia and separate in Wisconsin?

TaxMorgan

Hello Nik,

Yes, generally you can choose to file a joint state return when you file a joint federal return. In fact, some states require you to file a joint return if you file a joint federal return even if one of the spouses did not reside in the state.