zuluzu wrote:

- quote -

The federal return is easy: Jointly or separately, whichever is better.

For CA: Since her intent is NOT to abandon her residence
and her absence is non-permanent, she is still a CA resident
for their purposes.

For AL: Since only she is there, only she files. However,
since she has been there for more than a year, AL may want a
resident return also. That's a problem.

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zuluzu wrote:

- quote -

For starters, y'all may file a joint federal return. That's
easy.

She will file a non resident Alabama return, and since she
is still a resident of California, take a credit on y'all's
joint California return for the Alabama tax.

And those travel expenses are personal in nature, hence non
deductible.

ChEAr$$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA
2 Apr 2005
13 days and counting

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I work and live in CA and my wife in AL for the whole of
2004. She is doing her medical residency. She moved there in
July 2003. She is moving back to CA in June 2005. We are
both legal immigrants. I came to the country in 1997 and
have been in CA throughout. My wife came to the US in 2001
and was in CA before moving to AL in 2003. So i am not sure
how does that establish domicile for tax purposes. But we
are resident for tax purposes.

Now the complicated part. How do we file are taxes - Federal
and both the states involved. Her intention was to always
come back to CA after residency in AL.

1) I understand that CA is a community property state but
don't know what implications it has on our situation.

2) Secondly, we both travelled quite a bit during the year
and to see each other and i am interested in knowing if
those travel expenses can be deducted in anyway.. i have the
receipts for the whole year.

Please advise or if you need more info please email me... I
will appreciate any help..

thanks

zuluzu

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