Married filing separate in community property state without spouse income info?

community property state). Wife cannot get income information from the husband, so wife cannot complete Form 8958.

You don't say which spouse lives in Arizona, but let's assume it's the husband (not the spouse you are asking about).

First, community property only applies when one is domiciled in a community property state. Check whether he is actually domiciled in Arizona. Domicile is similar to, but not the same, as residency. You have exactly one domicile at any given time, so you do not lose your old domicile until you establish a new one. She may not even have enough information to determine what his domicile currently is.

Second, community property rules don't apply if the marital community has ended, i.e. spouses living apart with no intention to reconcile (typically, heading for a divorce, but that can take years in some cases).

Third, and this is just my opinion, the IRS would much rather a return be filed without the community income split, than no return be filed at all. I would just file the MFS return showing no community income received, and 100% of wife's income and deductions. Unless the husband shows an allocation of 50% of income to his wife on his own Form 8958, there may not even be any follow-up from the IRS.

I don't have any issues with your comments other than your second point on when a community ends is not applicable in all of the 9 CP states. Maybe you should have used "e.g." instead of "i.e."

E.g., in the two states I am familiar with (CA & NM), your statement holds true for CA. The date a couple stops sharing a household with no immediate intention to reconcile will end the community. Not so, in NM. The community ends on the date of legal separation or dissolution of the marriage.

I don't know the rules for AZ, but based on some divorce cases I am aware of, I think they probably follow NM rules.

All of my statements above are specific to "end of community" and have nothing to do with when CP law can be disregarded as outlined in revenue code section 66 and explained in detail in Pub 555.

On 2014-01-23 11:41, Alan wrote: [...]

Thanx for the reminder and clarification that there are variances in community property laws between states.

A good opportunity to remind folks there is a lot of detail, including state by state breakdown, at the IRS web site in the Internal Revenue Manual, here is a link to a summary table, there is a lot of explanatory text preceding it as well. CA and WA are the two states that recognize the early end of the marital community when spouses permanently separate.