Question

Spouse and I live in different states

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 24, 2020
1 reply
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My wife is a resident of NYC while I am a resident of Texas. I have no income to declare to NY at all and, as stated above, am not a resident. We are filing our federal taxes jointly but I want to file our state taxes separately as I have no income to declare in NY and do not want to be taxed on our combined income. If she files an NYS tax return "Married Filing Separately," do I also have to file one? I can't imagine the answer would be "yes" as I am not a resident and did not work or live in NY at any point, but want to make sure it won't raise any red flags if she files as MFS and the spouse (myself) does not file after.

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D

DavidD66

If one spouse is a New York State resident and the other is a nonresident or part-year resident. you must either: (a) file separate New York returns using filing status "single"; or (b) file jointly, as if you both were New York State residents, using filing status "Married Filing Separate".

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M

mcohen97Author

For option a, wouldn't that be a problem my wife is not single?

Additionally, for option b, I'm a bit confused. Would we file jointly as "Married Filing Jointly" for both our Federal and State taxes? Or would we need to each file a separate NYS return as "Married Filing Separately?"

Also, could you just clarify as to whether or not it would be permissible to ONLY file an NYS return for my wife as "Married Filing Separately" and not file one for myself?

Thank you!

D

DavidD66

Yes, your wife can file "Married Filing Separate" and you do not have to file a New York Return. As for option A, I just copied from the New York Department of Taxation Instructions: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it201i.pdf

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