My husband and I moved from NY to NJ in July 2009. I am currently living in NJ but continue to work exclusively, full-time in NYC. Even though we are now married and first-time home owners, we do NOT file jointly, but we both own our home and will also have the additional paperwork, insurance, taxes, etc, associated with owning a home. How do I go about filing my income taxes? What additional paperwork must be done, regarding the home mortgage, living/work situation? How can I avoid this confusion and excess in the future? Thank you!

Take alook here: Publication 936 (2009), Home Mortgage Interest Deduction (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p936/ar02.html) at the section "More than one borrower" about half way don the page. When you receive your 1098 statement from the mortgage company which reports mortgage interest and real estate taxes paid, it will have only one social security number on it. You need to decide how to split the amounts across both tax returns. You enter the amounts on schedule A, write "see attached," and add a statement to your return explaining how much interest and taxes each of you are taking, and the name and address of the other person taking the deductons.

If you want to avoid this in the future - file jointly! Are you sure that filing separately is advantageous for you?