[Sterly]

We own two homes. One in Alaska and one in Missouri. Alaska home is our primary residence and my husband works only in the state of Alaska. We file our tax returns in Alaska. I have the opportunity to work in Missouri and was wondering that if I file a nonresident return in Missouri to declare my Missouri income, will Missouri also expect to tax my husbands Alaska income as well ? As you know, Alaska has no earned income tax and we do not want to do anything to change that. We file as married filing jointly. Would appreciate your help. By the way, don't know if this is relevant or not, but we do not rent out our Missouri home. Thanks

[ebaines]

If you live in MO more than 183 days per calendar year then you are a MO resident, even though your husband is still an AK resident. What you can do is file jointly on your federal return as always, and for MO you must report all income (yours as well as your spouse's), and figure a preliminary tax on that full amount. But since your husbamnd is a non-resident with no MO-source income you can use form MO-NRI to calculate the percentage of your total income that is subject to MO taxes, and reduce the tax bill accordingly. Bottom line is you pay MO taxes on your income only (not his), although at a tax rate that is determined by your total income. Hope this helps.

[farnes58]

Thank you very much, that is incredibly helpful. One thing that has just occurred to me is, if I worked more than 183 days, would your answer still apply? Or would my being considered a MO resident then affect my husbands income) - Alaska is a no income tax state by the way. Thanks so much.

[ebaines]

if I worked more than 183 days, would your answer still apply? or would my being considered a MO resident then affect my husbands income.

My answer would apply as long as you are considered to be a MO resident, which means you spend more than 183 days/year in MO. For the first tax year you will most likely file a part-year resident return with MO (assuming that you don't move in on January 1), so that any income of yours that you earn prior to moving to MO is not taxed by MO. On the other hand, if you plan to spend less than 183 days/year in MO then you may still consider yourself an AK resident, and woukd file a non-resident tax return with MO. The difference is that as a non-resident MO can only tax you on income you earned on the MO job, and not on other income you may have (such as dividends, capital gains, income from another job, etc).

I don't understand your question regarding how your resdency satus would affect your husband's income - please clarify.