Spouse not present in Texas, getting critical error for dates in Texas.

[bmcfarland]

I have a multistate return.  The spouse has maintained a household in Texas for the entire year while the taxpayer worked for five months in Kansas and seven months in Virginia.  Proconnect is producing a critical error because the spouse has no dates in the Virginia section for part year/nonresident.  How to deal with this?

[itonewbie · Accepted solution]

For VA tax purposes, the taxpayer is a statutory tax resident for part of the year by virtue of spending more than 183 days in VA.  Why would you not include a date on 760PY?

[bmcfarland]

Because the spouse was never present in VA. Never. Not one day. She remained employed at her job in TX the entire year.  Only the taxpayer was in VA and those dates are entered.

[itonewbie]

Sorry I don't use PS, so can't speak to the critical diagnostic you got.  FWIW, PTO/Lacerte don't give any critical diagnostic so long as the taxpayer's dates are entered.  You may like to check off and ignore the diagnostic.

In your case, the presumption is that the couple is electing to file MFJ even though the default VA position where one is a resident and the other NR is MFS, irrespective of whether federal is MFJ.  If MFS is used, be mindful that VA respects community property law from what I understand, assuming the couple's domicile is TX.