Virginia's Form 763 for filing individual income taxes requires that for non-residents both spouses have Virginia source income in order to file as married filing jointly unless the spouse without Virgina source income has no income from any source then MFJ is allowed. Otherwise, if only one spouse has Virginia source income that spouse is required to file as married filing separately.
The requirement for non-residents to file MFS denies the taxpayer an exemption for the spouse and reduces the standard deduction from $6000 to $3000. In addition, the requirement for filing MFS requires a married filing separately federal return to be prepared and filed. Are there states other than Virginia that do not allow non-residents to file MFJ unless both spouses have income from that state? In 2006 North Carolina and South Carolina ditched the requirement for a MFS return if only one spouse had income from their state .
Cheers,
WDK