Hi guys

I'm in the process of going through TurboTax for our filing and had a question. TurboTax was calculating some things strangely that didnt make sense and I wanted to get some input.

A little background:

My wife accepted a new position in Washington DC and began work near the end of the year. I was in Texas the entire year.

• Does her move date count as when she started working for the new job in DC, even if she worked remotely in Texas for the first month? She began being paid at the end of October, but moved physically start of December.
• Only her earnings during that time are taxed for state taxes correct?
• When I tried filing it didn't want to let me file as Married Filing Jointly with one of us being a part-year resident. Is that the case?

Thanks for any help!

I'm not a CPA but have seen something similar in the past. Spouse that worked/lived out of state had State income taxes on wages related to employment out of state. TX spouse did not, joint investment income, etc... did not.

Not sure what would have happened on separate property investment income.

Also, if your spouse spends time in TX/works in TX, she may be able to talk to HR and have X% of her income treated as "TX" income, savings a bit on taxes. Again, this is something I have seen done.

Is all of your income W-2?

When I moved from TX to NC some time ago, it was based on the time you lived in the state. For example I moved right at the middle of the year, so I had to pay NC income tax on half my total income from BOTH states.

You'd think it would be I earned X in TX and Y in NC, so I owe state tax only on Y. Nope, I owed taxes on X+Y prorated.

Obviously other states may be different, and I have no idea how it affects married couples living apart temporarily.

Its been years, but in my traveling days I recall paying state income taxes in states where you met their qualifications but only based on the days you worked in the state. Mattered not where your home base was or where your employer was located.

So if I was based in Houston but traveled to Louisiana 30% of the time, I paid 30% x compensation x SIT rate. I think some states base it on % of comp earned in that state and not just time. For instance, NFL players have the "jock tax" where they are required to pay taxes to states where they played a game that year.

Long story short - you may benefit from a tax professional for this transition year.

Your domicile will stay in Texas, correct? Then she is a Texas resident and temporarily residing in the other state. Just file a non-resident return for that state in 2019.

Strategy said:

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Is all of your income W-2?

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No we had 6 W2s and 3 1099s

gigemhilo said:

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Your domicile will stay in Texas, correct? Then she is a Texas resident and temporarily residing in the other state. Just file a non-resident return for that state in 2019.

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No we are in the process of a fulltime move. She just got there before me.

The Milkman said:

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gigemhilo said:

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Your domicile will stay in Texas, correct? Then she is a Texas resident and temporarily residing in the other state. Just file a non-resident return for that state in 2019.

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No we are in the process of a fulltime move. She just got there before me.

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Three letters - C.P.A.

then you would want to do a part year resident return showing her there on the days she started, and you as a full time resident of Texas.

The main thing is to make sure it only shows her wage income for the new job as non-texas. everything else should be Texas income.