I live in CA (community property state) and I'm filing MFS. Does my spouse have to file if she had no income?

ThanksI live in CA (community property state) and I'm filing MFS. Does my spouse have to file if she had no income?
Yes, you both must file since you are in a CP state. Each of you would claim half of your income and half of the withholdings on the separate returns even though you are the one who earned it.





Because of the way that CA law works on debt recovery this is probably the only way that you can preserve any of your refund. Filing injured spouse with a joint return may well result in the entire refund being applied to the back child support. CA law provides that creditors can recover debts that existed prior to the marriage through community income, effectively negating the benefit of the injured spouse claim.I live in CA (community property state) and I'm filing MFS. Does my spouse have to file if she had no income?
If you had income, you spouse had income--half of your earnings.
If you lived together, you put half the income (and half the withholding) on each MFS return.