Filing jointly, and separately

[Opfor77]

How do I file married filing jointly federally, while filing married filing separately for two different state tax returns?

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

Create an MFJ return for federal, make sure you mark all the items as taxpayer or spouse, then when its complete, go to File > Split MFJ into MFS and then youve got 2 MFS returns to use for the states......

Be sure to uncheck the EF box for the states on the federal Joint return and on the separate state returns uncheck the EF box for federal.

[Opfor77]

YOU. ARE. AWESOME!!

[jofijohnjoseph]

I believe this option is only available for Proseries Professional users.

As a Basic user, this is what I do:  tag all income items as TP or SP.  Save the file.  Then save the file again, this time as TP Separate.  Set the federal return to MFS, turn off the e-file option for the federal return, and work on the states.  When finished, you can file the states separately

Do the same for the spouse, although you have to manually switch the Spouse and Taxpayer name on the file.  

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

Yes, Basic is missing this option, but the OP marked as using the Professional product.