New York State return both taxpayers non-residents

[Drphibes]

Have a couple that live/work in CA full time. She has a new position from a company in NY where she stays in CA operating out of office in home. NY law says she is taxed in NY as a non-resident. I am trying to get Lacerte to create a non-resident MFS return for NY for her. Otherwise the NY return wants to add both of their incomes together, create tax, the apportion the tax based on the NY income ratio leading to higher tax. I can't get the program to do this. Any clues? Thanks in advance!

[sjrcpa]

If they file MFJ for federal I think you have to file MFJ for NY. Have you checked the instructions for nonresident returns?

[Drphibes]

The instructions speak of doing a MFS return but I can't figure out how to make Lacerte do it. Thanks for the reply so far.

[BobKamman]

I have clients who file MFJ federal, while the husband files MFS for New York. It's worked for several years. I think ProSeries automatically set it up that way when there was only NY income for one spouse.

[Drphibes]

I am assuming neither of them are NY residents. How do you get Lacerte to do that or do you have 2 Lacerte files for the clients one just having the NY income? Thanks in advance.

[BobKamman]

Yes, both my clients are NY nonresidents.  I am using ProSeries.  As I recall, I did the federal MFJ, then opened a NY nonresident return and sorted out the income between NY and non-NY source.  At some point the software must have noticed that only the husband had NY source income, so it made the filing status MFS for him and ignored the wife.  No effort on my part, I had to do some research to make sure it was the correct way to file.