Married Filing Separately in a Community Property State - Do I Need Spouse's Income After 8 Months Separation?
Been separated from my spouse for 8 months now living in different states. Planning to file taxes separately this year. Getting mixed answers about whether I need to include their income on my return. Anyone know the rules about this? Really dont want to mess this up and get flagged by the IRS. I just started preparing my taxes with a software program, and received this alert that's confusing me: DOUBLE-CHECK / ALERTS Allocation Record - Missing Spouse Information Since you are filing married filing separately in a community property state you are required to report your spouse's allocation of income and payments. Complete the information. Taxable state refunds $ Business income or (loss) $ The software is asking me to input my spouse's information for certain types of income. I didn't realize that being in a community property state would affect my filing status. Does this mean I really do need to know my spouse's income amounts even though we're separated and in different states? What counts as a "community property state" anyway? And how am I supposed to get this information when we've been separated for 8 months with minimal contact? I was planning to just file my own income, but now I'm worried about getting flagged for incomplete information. Does anyone have experience with this situation in a community property state?
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Leeann Blackstein
Tax preparer here! If you're filing Married Filing Separately, you DO NOT need to include your spouse's income on your return. You only report your own income, deductions, and credits. However, if you live in a community property state, different rules may apply - you might need to report half of both incomes. What state are you in?
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Liv Park
Im in Florida. So I should be good right?
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Leeann Blackstein
Yep! Florida isn't a community property state, so you're all set to just report your own income 👍
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Ryder Greene
hey just wanted to mention I was super confused about this too but I used taxr.ai and it cleared everything up for me! It costs like $5 but totally worth it cause it analyzes your whole transcript and tells you exactly what you need to do. https://taxr.ai
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Carmella Fromis
is it legit? kinda sounds too good to be true ngl 🤔
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Ryder Greene
100% legit! It basically reads your transcript and explains everything in normal human language lol. Saved me hours of googling
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Carmella Fromis
just tried it and omg where has this been all my life?! It literally told me exactly what was wrong with my return and how to fix it 💯
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Theodore Nelson
I filed MFS last year and its actually pretty straightforward! Just make sure you check the right box for filing status and only put YOUR w2s and income stuff
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AaliyahAli
same boat as you last year! quick tip: make sure you both dont try to claim the same dependents if you have any kiddos
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Liv Park
no kids thankfully so that makes it easier!
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Ellie Simpson
idk why they make this stuff so confusing fr fr 🤮 like why cant the irs just tell us what to do
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Arjun Kurti
fr tho the whole system is a joke 🤡
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Raúl Mora
Just dont forget you cant take certain credits when filing MFS. No earned income credit and some other stuff gets limited
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Liv Park
wait what??? what other credits cant i take?
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Raúl Mora
Child tax credit, education credits, and usually cant contribute to a Roth IRA if you lived together at all during the year
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