Hi everyone! I've been round and round my state association, friends who are tax preparers, my own research, and I am still uncertain. I admittedly should not have taken both of these returns, but here we are. Husband and wife in Texas, still married, now living together trying to work things out, but were living apart all of 2023 and 2024. Now, this is Texas, a community property state that has no legal separation. I did not prepare their returns in 2023, but they are clearly wrong. I won't go into details to keep it short. My question is, under IRC §66 and Publication 555, there is a provision for spouses living apart all year under which they do not have to report each other's income. However, I've received deferring opinions on how to approach this. Some say to report use the 1/2 of the spouse's income approach and some say they do not have to. I'm about to lose my mind on this. I'm attaching some screenshots. In Texas, W2 income is community property. I do not know if they transferred income between bank accounts, but suspect they did. I suspect they probably had a joint bank account.  Any thoughts? Please help me stay sane, haha. P.S. I could only get the first screenshot to upload correctly but you get the idea.