Tyler Franks wrote:
- quote -

Primarily to maximize deductions for the one with higher AGI, and
credits for the one with lower AGI.

-Mark Bole

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Tyler Franks wrote:
- quote -

They're not married. That's why I said "pseudo-MFJ" return. As
mentioned in another recent thread, such taxpayers have lots of planning
opportunities to arrange for who pays, and takes deductions for, certain
joint expenses.

-Mark Bole

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

- quote -


Ok I missed the "as if the taxpayers were filing unmarried", but that makes
me wonder what the point is?

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

- quote -

his/her spouse.

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

"Ian Pilcher" <arequipeno[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -





See if you can enter the W-2 as joint income. Does it give you the option
other than "T" or "S" ???

Upon looking at my software, it does not have that ability to input joint
wages. Nearly everything else can be jointly assigned - interest,
dividends, capital gains, etc and so on.

Maybe force the split by creating two W-2's with half the income and
withholdings for each spouse?





--
Paul Thomas, CPA
Watkinsville, Georgia

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Mark Bole wrote:
- quote -

Their "wizard" asks you to allocate your various bits of income and
deductions. IIRC, they also give you a few hints along the way.

- quote -

I'm not looking for anything automagic. I'd just like to be able to
enter (or automatically download) both of our W-2s and then tell the
program to allocate them 50/50. The way programs seem to work, I'll
have to create one or more "fake" W-2s with manually adjusted numbers.

--
================================================== ======================
Ian Pilcher arequipeno[at]gmail.com
================================================== ======================

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Stuart A. Bronstein wrote:
- quote -


Stu, sorry to disagree, but I believe the answer is:

No, you cannot disregard state community property laws, unless the
community has clearly ended and the spouses lived apart the entire year,
or at least from the time the community ended.

In the latter case, there appear to be a few exceptions that avoid the
normal drawbacks of filing MFS (such as taxability of Soc. Sec. income,
etc).

See IRS Pub 555 for details on the federal tax treatment of MFS
taxpayers in community property states.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p555/ar02.html#d0e230

For those new to the rules, here's a starter:

"Community or Separate Property and Income
"If you file a federal tax return separately from your spouse, you must
report half of all community income and all of your separate income.
Generally, the laws of the state in which you are domiciled govern
whether you have community property and community income or separate
property and separate income for federal tax purposes."

-Mark Bole

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Ian Pilcher <arequipeno[at]gmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

My recollection is that federal law allows you to file separate returns
on your individual incomes irrespective of community property laws.
Federal law would supercede state law in this regard.

Stu

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Ian Pilcher wrote:
- quote -

Is Taxact's claim based on community property rules, or separate
property rules? Perhaps it is not taking your specific situation into
account.

- quote -

Hmm, sounds like they missed a competitive advantage.... ;-)

- quote -

If you find a site that auto-magically applies community property rules
to taxable income on a MFS return, please let the group know. I'm
guessing there's no money to made on such software, or someone would
have done it by now (or at least made a valiant effort).

On a related note, I'm looking for software that will take a pseudo-MFJ
return, and optimize the federal credits and deductions as if the
taxpayers were filing unmarried, and there are children (both are
parents) so at least one will be Head of Household (HOH) on the federal
return, and they all live in the same house.

-Mark Bole

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

TaxAct claims that my wife and I can probably save around $500 by
filing separately. Ironically enough, it seems completely unable to
actually handle such a return. It will only allow me to enter my W-2
information, even though I'll actually need to use 50% of our combined
incomes. (We live in Texas, so just about everything is community
income.)

TurboTax seems to have the same limitation.

Anyone know of a site that doesn't suck like this?

Thanks!

--
================================================== ======================
Ian Pilcher arequipeno[at]gmail.com
================================================== ======================

--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >