Taxes while living apart?

[Deleted]

I just realized that I have no idea how we're supposed to handle our tax return since H and I will be living and working in two different states for the last quarter of 2012.

[mrs.spunky]

You will have to file a tax return in your current state for your earnings there, but your DH will not have to file a return in your new state.

[lindyanne]

Find a good accountant. We thought we did and ours were totally effed up.

[Deleted]

We were in this situation last year and the upgraded version of turbo tax was very clear in walking us through how to file.

[gt7301b]

My only recommendation is to make sure that your new employer pays taxes to the new state. When I moved my new employer paid taxes to my old state (the one on my application) and it was a pain to get everything fixed.

[ladybrettashley]

You'll have to file state taxes in both states. If you're filing jointly, you'll probably have to identify as 'part-year resident.' In future years, if you are still living apart, you will have to decide what your state of residence is, and the other will be a 'non-resident.' The forms are all online and they usually give directions how to fill it out so you're only paying income tax on the income you made in that state.

DH and I have moved all over the place so we've done multiple state returns for the last 5 years. It's a PITA but it's not that hard.

Or, you could just hire an accountant and let them do the work.

[londoncalling]

Your husband will file 1 state return. You will file 2 state partial year returns.

Your earned income in state A will be taxable in state A. Your earned income in state B will be taxable in state B. This will be easy since you will get two different W-2s.

Unearned income gets to be a bit trickier if it is in joint accounts etc.

[Deleted]

Sept 17, 2012 9:11:58 GMT -5 londoncalling said:

Unearned income gets to be a bit trickier if it is in joint accounts etc.

Well, we don't have to worry about that!

It's good to hear that the updated Turbo Tax can handle this. I have zero desire to hire an accountant. We are MFJ renters with no non-retirement investments who take the standard deduction.

[sillygoosegirl]

I've never had this exact situation, but I've rarely filed taxes in just one state. Look up the non-resident and partial-year resident form in the two states. There are generally pretty clear instructions on which to use and how to file. It will look like you are going to pay a shitton of taxes in both states right up to the final steps, but normally it's not actually so bad aside from the annoyance of filling out so many forms and answering annoying personal questions about residency.

You should probably look at the forms now, particularly the portion about residency. When I was working in CA and living with DH in OR, the state of CA wanted to know the dates of all the trips DH took to CA. Likewise when we moved away from WI, we had to indicate on our WI taxes all the trips we took to WI for the rest of the year.