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She'll let you live - THIS time. But if @RitaB offers you a hug, watch out!

Christian, since only one of them (your client) is a Virginia resident, the Virginia instructions state " If you and your spouse filed a joint federal return, but only one of you is a Virginia resident, the resident must use Filing Status 3." Filing status 3, is of course, married filing separate. The New Jersey instructions state "If during the entire tax year one spouse was a resident and the other a nonresident, the resident may file a separate New Jersey return." So they can file jointly on the federal and yet separately on the states. Calculations of income and deductions might become a bit hairy (think higher fees!) but should not be so very complicated.

This one I wouldn't do at all. I'm too old to sort thru all that.

Don't forget that this is the new due date for 1041's. [actually 10/2 this year.

Hi Gail - I had not read far enough into your response after you explained Virginia, so I apologize for that. Had I read far enough I would not have responded to the OP. However, NJ instructions under page 1, Filing Status, it clearly states they are bound by whatever status they choose on their Federal return. You refer to page 15 which allows them to choose. In case of a conflict, fact-specific instructions usually trump general instructions, so I would say your answer would be more correct than mine. However, yet another consideration (and I'm not going to spend the time to research) is whether NJ or VA requires a marriage of total income to the federal return regardless of filing status for state purposes. Essentially, many states do this in order to move the taxpayer into a higher bracket. Works like this: Spouse 1(VA) reports $70,000, Spouse 2(NJ) reports $30,000. States who do this would require reporting of $100,000 as total income to determine the progressive tax bracket and establish tax before proportionate reduction. For such an example, NJ would calculate tax on $100,000 based on filing status, then take 30% of the tax to assess the proper amount. This method will result in a higher NJ tax than simply taxing $30,000. The methodology requires tracking to the Federal return - meaning if there is a separate federal return $30,000 is reported to NJ, and if there is a MFJ return $100,000 is reported for NJ regardless of NJ filing status. Following through on all options is what I do and it does run into time and fees. Although my state has no income tax, I have Federal contractors as customers who must file in every state where they have a contract. And being long and narrow with all contiguous states having an income tax, in Tennessee you're never far away from a client who has to deal with state income taxes. Apologies to you, Gail, for not having read your entire message.

I could see people caring if they were not filing correctly to avoid paying on a student loan - otherwise it isn't a major factor IMO. I've also known people who were married and I had no clue. My neighbor for one had been living apart from her husband for 30 years and I just assumed he was dead from the way they talked! Maybe wishful thinking? Guy I know got divorced and moved in with his ex-wife a couple years later. If the IRS was ever going to have a read flag you would think that was it. They aren't a couple at all, just friends living in separate parts of the house.

I don't know. I have had clients file as single for years, and then when they pass away I find out they have a spouse I never knew about. And at no time does the IRS catch this. I assume that unless the return is audited, and maybe not even then, the only way this is caught is if one of the taxpayers actually files MFS and puts the other taxpayer's social security number in the correct place.

Edsel, if you look at page 15 of the New Jersey 1040 instructions, the third column, fourth paragraph, has the quote that I used in my answer to say that they could file separately on the New Jersey return even though they filed a joint federal return. This does assume that neither of them changes residence to the other's state within the year.

Requirements for a Federal joint return are not bounded by state borders, so married filing joint would be allowed, presuming the separate living conditions are presumed to be temporary. If he is married, he cannot file single. It looks like Virginia requires MFS, but also appears that the new wife will not have to file a non-resident Virginia return unless she has Virginia income. Reading from the NJ instructions, it appears he must use the same filing status for NJ as he does for federal. Assuming he files MFJ for federal, he must do so for NJ even though only one of them has NJ income. This would require claiming total of all income on the New Jersey joint return. However, the return would be eligible for "taxes paid to other states" after the NJ tax has been calculated. There is no reciprocity with Virginia. NJ apparently has reciprocity only with PA. I love doing state returns with problems and choices such as this. I do not charge proportionately more than simply the extra time, effort, and filing costs that occur. Even limiting my fee to extra time, I would expect to charge about double what I would for the federal return only.

Contributions are withdrawn first in a ROTH IRA. If she converted 25,000 from a Traditional IRA to a ROTH, and that's all the basis, then she owes tax on 5,000 of earnings. If she was younger than 59 1/2 when she took the withdrawal, she also owes 10% penalty on the earnings. It may not be this straightforward. My clients always dink around and forget what they did with their money, what they contributed, what they withdrew, etc. They are pretty sure it's all in my computer somewhere.

Kinda looks like you solved my problem Gail. Oh me, let's see a single federal return, a married filing separate Virginia return, a married filing separate New Jersey return. Hmm, I see the billable hours rising upwards . Clearly his marriage will produce unexpected benefits. It has come to light she is a care giver to her aged mother and wants mom to come south as well. Ah, the joys of newly wedded bliss. Thanks again. It's so great to have a fellow Virginian to help me out with these occasional head scratchers.

Bart: You might have made out better with the scales. But don't make the mistake the general store owner made one time. A customer came in and said she needed a whole chicken. He reached down into the ice chest behind the counter and put one on the scale that weighed about 3 lb. She thought for a minute and said "that might not be big enough". When he put the chicken back in the ice chest, he realized this was his last one. So he swished it around in the ice, placed it back on the scale, and slipped his thumb on the scale so it read about 4 lb. She thought for a couple of minutes and said, "I'm still not sure 4 lb is enough for my family - I'll just take both of them."