I jointly own a home in NY with my wife and this is our primary residence today. My wife is a home maker and does not go out for work. Recently I got a job with a company in Massachussettes. We decided to buy a condo near work in Massachussettes where I would live 4 days a week and come home to my family in NY over the weekend. The reason why I cannot sell my home in NY is because the real estate is very bad in NY and I will incur loss if I have to sell it. So I plan to dispose it off slowly. Until then we both have accepted this as a situation we have to deal with. The difficulty for me is to understand which is my primary residence from a Taxation perspective. I pay mortgage on both the homes even if my wife lives in NY and I live in MAss. Hoping for a reply.

For the first year, you can say that your primary residence is in New York, and you can file your Massachusetts return as a non-resident.

However, starting sometime in Year Two, the state of Massachusetts will insist that you are a full-year resident of Massachusetts, even if your wife and family is not. This is due to your ownership of the condo in Massachusetts plus the fact that you spend the bulk of the year living and working in Massachusetts.

Taxwise, it probably will not make THAT much of a difference, because taxes paid to one state is offset by a tax credit for those paid taxes on the other state's tax return, and both Massachusetts and New York state have roughly equivalent tax rates.

However, you probably know about the Massachusetts law requiring that you have health insurance if you are a Massachusetts resident. In the second year, you WILL be subject to that law, and, if you file jointly, it will probably apply to your wife as well, even though she lives in New York. Hopefully this is a moot point because you already have health insurance, but if not, the Massachusetts tax penalty for not having health insurance CAN be rather stiff.