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June 5, 2019
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I am married but filed separately. Why is my and my husband's name on my IL state return?

  • June 5, 2019
  • 4 replies
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Best answer by MichaelMc

If you are Married Filing Separately, IRS regulations require that your spouse's name and Social Security number must appear on your return. This serves two purposes. First, if there are items of joint income or deductions, or joint estimated tax payments, it assists the IRS in reconciling the separately reported allocations of these amounts.

Secondly, there are regulations that provide for coordination between the tax returns of spouses who file separately, most notably, the requirement that both spouses must treat deductions in the same manner -- either both must itemize deductions or both must take the standard deduction. Having the spouse identified on each return allows better coordination between the two returns.

4 replies

MichaelMcAnswer
Employee
June 5, 2019

If you are Married Filing Separately, IRS regulations require that your spouse's name and Social Security number must appear on your return. This serves two purposes. First, if there are items of joint income or deductions, or joint estimated tax payments, it assists the IRS in reconciling the separately reported allocations of these amounts.

Secondly, there are regulations that provide for coordination between the tax returns of spouses who file separately, most notably, the requirement that both spouses must treat deductions in the same manner -- either both must itemize deductions or both must take the standard deduction. Having the spouse identified on each return allows better coordination between the two returns.

March 21, 2025

I am having same issue now.

I am filing married separately for Illinois but file paper is showing my wife name along with me but she does not live in Illinois.

 

Did you find any solution?

DawnC
Employee
March 21, 2025

From the original post, @Mpnkz  -  ''If you are Married Filing Separately, IRS regulations require that your spouse's name and Social Security number must appear on your return. This serves two purposes. First, if there are items of joint income or deductions, or joint estimated tax payments, it assists the IRS in reconciling the separately reported allocations of these amounts.

 

Secondly, there are regulations that provide for coordination between the tax returns of spouses who file separately, most notably, the requirement that both spouses must treat deductions in the same manner -- either both must itemize deductions or both must take the standard deduction. Having the spouse identified on each return allows better coordination between the two returns.''

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March 21, 2025

My wife Pennsylvania married file separately does not include my name in filing paper (it was auto-generated from turbo tax) but my Illinois is coming as both name. Why would her name come in Illinois tax return as she did not even stay in Illinois and never earned in Illinois.

March 21, 2025

from Il instructions

If you are married and filing separate returns, print your full name and SSN and your spouse’s full name and SSN if you have it. The info carries to the Il return from the federal entries. Il should still show your filing status as MFS and the exception amount  will be 2775 on a joint return it would be double 5550