Filing Joint Federal and separate state with one state having no income taxes

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 15, 2021
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Hello, my family live in Florida and are residents there except for me. I am a service member whose home of record is Georgia. I would like to file my federal taxes using Married Filing Jointly using the standard deduction. Because my wife is no longer a resident of Georgia, I would like to file my state taxes separately, but it seems the itemized deduction provides a larger refund because I am claiming all of our home's mortgage interest and property taxes. Is it allowed to file federal as standard deduction and state as itemized? Am I allowed to claim all of the home's interest and taxes when I am the sole person filing a state taxes?

Best answer by ToddL99

Since your wife is not a Georgia resident, you can still file a joint (GA) state tax return and exclude her income as a non-resident.

With rare exception, states require that you use the same method of calculating tax (standard deduction or itemizing) on your state return that you use on your federal return.

From the GA DOR website:

How do we file a tax return when one spouse is a resident of Georgia and the other is not?

If one spouse is a resident of Georgia and one is not, the taxpayer should write three in the residency code block (nonresident) of the Form 500. You must use Schedule 3 of Form 500 to calculate your Georgia taxable income.

ToddL99Answer

Since your wife is not a Georgia resident, you can still file a joint (GA) state tax return and exclude her income as a non-resident.

With rare exception, states require that you use the same method of calculating tax (standard deduction or itemizing) on your state return that you use on your federal return.

From the GA DOR website:

How do we file a tax return when one spouse is a resident of Georgia and the other is not?

cbonineAuthor

Thank you. That would be the best result, but I am unsure how to make the change to exclude her income as a non-resident. Is that done in the State Taxes section?

ToddL99

Yes, the state tax interview is where you exclude income that is not taxable by the state. In this case, your wife's income would not be taxable by GA.