Married Filing Federal Jointly but living in two states (Ohio and Georgia)

edgar012

Hello!

My spouse lives in Ohio and has lived and earned all income in Ohio for the entire year and similarly, I have lived in Georgia and earned all my income there. The issue I was having is that I can only file taxes for Georgia in the software alongside the federal return and not for Ohio when completing a federal married filing joint return. The software recommends filing the federal return as married separate but that might cause tax liability issues. Is that the only solution in the software?

MatthewD

Hi edgar012,

This is a complex situation. Although, GA has an exception for filing a joint federal return and a separate GA return (mentioned below), OH requires that you file using the same status as your federal return. They do have a nonresident credit, however, our software does not support that credit.

So, in your case your best option is to file married filing separate on your federal return and state return. This will require two accounts. One for you and one for your spouse. See below for link to the GA and OH instructions.

GA page 15. https://dor.georgia.gov/document/document/2025-it-511-individual-income-tax-booklet

Married Filing Jointly:
Taxpayers who are married filing jointly with mixed
Georgia residencies are allowed to file separate
returns claiming their own allowable exemptions, and
deductions, or file a joint return. If filing a joint return:
Enter 2: If one spouse is a resident and the other
is a part-year resident or nonresident,
Enter 2: If both spouses are part-year residents,
Enter 3: If both spouses are nonresidents

OH page 15: https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/v1767095693/tax.ohio.gov/forms/ohio_individual/individual/2025/it1040-booklet.pdf

If you and your spouse filed a joint federal return,
you must file a joint Ohio income tax return even if
one or both of you are nonresidents of Ohio. You may
claim the nonresident credit (see the Ohio Schedule
of Credits) for income not earned or received in Ohio.
If you and your spouse filed separate federal returns,
you must file separate Ohio returns.