Married - file jointly or separately

I cannot answer about either of the states you mentioned, but your federal filing status can be MFJ or can be MFS, and you can decide thata between you.

You're going to have to figure everything using every option you have. Forget about refund numbers. What you're looking for is the smallest total tax, state and Federal, for the two of you.

Yes, you can do MFJ. MFJ generally gives a smaller total tax, but you have to run the numbers to be sure. Sometimes, MFS gives you a better result.

The states you mention are not community property states. Community property states mean that on your federal return, if you do MFS, then you have to pretend that each spouse earned half of the income of the other, though I think a pre-nup overrides this. Even on the federal return you have to report income this way, which often destroys any advantage of MFS.

Don't know much about these states. Some states, or maybe all, require that you use the same status on the state return as on the federal, though there may be exceptions for gay couples. If one person made much more than the other and lives in a low tax state, then MFJ could be a problem. Hopefully, someone can shed light on this.

I am assuming that each of you was a full year resident in the state where you were working and continues to be domiciled in that state despite your marriage. Both Maryland and Massachusetts are common-law states, so none of either spouse's earnings will be attributed to the other.

In Maryland, if you file a joint federal return, you may file a joint return with Maryland; however, if you do that, your total income from all sources (both spouses) will be taken into account to calculate the tax rate that applies to the Maryland resident spouse's income (and any Maryland source income of the nonresident spouse). Maryland has graduated rates. You'll probably be better off to file MFS in Maryland, which is permitted. If the MD nonresident spouse has MD source income, though, you'll probably want to calculate the tax both ways (both MFS or MFJ) to see what gets you the better result. See Maryland Administrative Release No. 3

Katie in San Diego

MFS is not a bar to stimulus rebate.