Greetings,
In California if you file married filing a separate return, you must follow community
property rules for the division of income and deductions.You and your spouse must each report half of the community income, plus your separate income on your separate returns.
Community income includes compensation for services (such as wages) if the spouse earning the compensation is domiciled in the community property state.
So, you will report one half of each other's wages as well as one half of the other income and deductions if you both lived in California.
See http://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/04_forms/04_1051A.pdf and http://www.irs.gov/publications/p555/index.html for more detailed information.
There is nothing other than the separate returns that needs to be filed. Your choice of filing is not uncommon and is acceptable so long as you follow the community property rules cited above.
Best regards.
Hello again,
Sorry I overlooked that your divorce wil be final during 2009; so indeed you will use single filing status and not married filing separately.
Nonetheless, the rules for the portion of the year that you were married and when each of your earnings were part of the community property must still be followed. That is, you each report half of the total of both earnings while you were married.
So, you can report only your own W-2 earnings for the period you were not married; but have to report one half of the community income during the period you were married.
Indeed you may not each only claim your earnings for the entire year (even though your divorce was final before the end of the year) as that is not your share of the community income for the year.
I hope this helps to clarify for you.
Enrolled Agent
I have prepared individual, trust, partnership, and corporate taxes since 1987.