Couple residents in different states

[Margaret CPA in OH]

In 2009 spouse 1 took great paying job in VA, spouse 2 stayed in OH. VA allows MFS when federal is joint (I checked the instructions) although OH does not. Is there a way to change the VA filing status without overriding the many fields it would involve?

Thanks

[grmy2h]

From VA760CG you can click the data tab and choose your filing status there.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Thanks, I did that, but it assumed that the filer was the VA resident so filer and spouse were totally backwards. That was inputting for 2009 to rollover. She was a part-year resident in 2009, full year in 2010.

For 2010, I used the form you show and I switched the filer and spouse on the federal input trying trick it. It still carried over 2 dependents for self and spouse. It didn't calculate the spouse tax adjustment. I had to link the fields to make it work. Any other hints because I may be doing something else wrong!

I also had to override the address for the VA resident. This is complicated as federal assumes folks live together when filing jointly. Go figure!

[grmy2h]

If there is a way to do it... I can't figure it out... sorry, I was able to duplicate the return and then fill in the 1040 on the duplicate so that the correct info flows over to the state.

Hopefully someone else knows of an easier way... sorry I couldn't help, I've never run into this before.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Thanks, grmy2h. I'll keep finagling with it. This is the first time I've had clients that are a married couple but legal residents in separate states. Fortunately for 2010 they are better off filing mfs for federal so required by Ohio so maybe when I split and do VA for her, all will be good. And I'll continue to hope mfs is the better option going forward! Or maybe he'll move to VA and find a job. Her salary from Booz, Hamilton is 50% greater than his AND they are paying for her to get her MBA from some prestigious university there.

[MontanaEA]

Thanks, grmy2h. I'll keep finagling with it. This is the first time I've had clients that are a married couple but legal residents in separate states. Fortunately for 2010 they are better off filing mfs for federal so required by Ohio so maybe when I split and do VA for her, all will be good. And I'll continue to hope mfs is the better option going forward! Or maybe he'll move to VA and find a job. Her salary from Booz, Hamilton is 50% greater than his AND they are paying for her to get her MBA from some prestigious university there.

I have one like that. I prepare a MFJ return. Then I duplicate it and prepare MFS. Then I take all the wife's stuff off the return. I efile the MFJ one for the feds, the MFS one for the state. However, in my case, the husband is the resident of the state in question. If the wife were, it would be easier to prepare the MFS return from scratch, I think.

Either way, it's a pain in the .......

[Margaret CPA in OH]

MontanaEA, that is always the way I do mfs, even when they were mfj the prior year. It's still a pain in the backside but doing mfj first is some confirmation of the better option. The main issue is about the 'home state' when mfj is better. Again, not an issue this year but who knows in the future? And with their income and returns, I would like to keep them as clients! So I will just have the filer and spouse first on the appropriate state return and bill for the extra work.

Thanks again!

[Catherine]

I've had a number of clients with MFJ Federal/home state and MFS in other states (where allowed). I've always duplicated the return - sometimes twice - and put the spouse in question as taxpayer #1 and done the states from that point. Make sure you have the correct wages etc!

Only place where I don't like this solution is the summary page, where I end up using white-out and hand-writing in the MFS state info.

Catherine