Montana Filing Status Married, Filing Separate Returns on the Same Form
If both you and your spouse have income, you can file your Montana tax returns separately, even if you filed your federal income tax return jointly. But, if you and your spouse file separately, you will each need to report your own adjusted gross income. You cannot arbitrarily assign income between the two of you.
Your income from salaries, wages, bonuses, commissions and other income from providing personal services either as an employee or as an independent contractor should be reported by the spouse who earned it. Any other income that you earned from rents, royalties, dividends, etc., from property that is owned by only one spouse, has to be reported by that spouse. If any income is earned from property that is jointly owned by both spouses, that income should be split equally, unless you and your spouse can show a different proportional ownership. When you file separately, both spouses must either claim the standard deduction or itemize their deductions. You cannot file separately on the same form when one spouse is a resident and the other spouse is a nonresident. In this case, you should use either filing status married filing separately on separate forms or married filing separately and spouse not filing.
When you file separately on the same form, you should report your income and deductions for one spouse in column A and the other spouse in column B.
Please Note: Although submitted on the same form, married taxpayers electing to file using this status are submitting two tax returns. If both taxpayers are entitled to refunds, two separate checks or direct deposits will be issued. In the event both spouses owe additional tax, penalties or interest, we will mail separate Statements of Account. If you are entitled to a refund and your spouse owes, and you file separate returns on the same form, you are directing the Department of Revenue to apply your refund to the amount owed by your spouse.