Thanks, @deshlam. I think that sentence just means that in the first year, members saved that amount of money. It doesn't mean in future years they will not save, although of course that's not guaranteed either.

Thanks, @mhoran_psprep. Joint account owners can legally withdraw money from the joint account any way they like, so I wonder how IRS can distinguish gift from non-gift. Say in the beginning A deposits $20k to the account and B uses it, and sometime later B deposits $20K to the account and A uses it. Does it mean both A and B sent gift to the other, and both needed to report the gift? The point of having a joint account is whoever has the money can deposit it to the account, and whoever needs the money can use it. If every transaction is a gift, what's the point of having a joint account?

Yes, you're probably right, @chepner. But still don't know if the scenario I described would be considered gift.

Thanks, @user102008! I'm sure I'm getting a little academic, but I really can't resist the urge to ask. If we MFJ the federal return, why do we have only one option for CA tax but two options for CT tax? I searched a little and it seems we can also do MFS for CA just like for CT? Also, if we file 540 NR for CA, does that still make my income communal property legally speaking (since I'm not a resident of CA now)?

Yes. Thanks. Somehow CT does not allow all of y (my tax to CA) as my credit, only about 3/4 of it. Why?

Hi @user102008. Sorry to bother you again. We'll do MFJ for both states' taxes. If CA taxed me amount x in tax, but my actual tax should be y (meaning I should get x-y refund), do I claim x or y in my CT tax return? Thanks!

Thanks again, @user102008! My spouse's income is similar to mine, so it seems there is little financial difference between MFJ and MFS. I guess the main advantage of MFJ is to simplify the forms. So if we file everything jointly, I can just do it by myself for both the federal and the TWO states, and my spouse doesn't need to file anything, right?

Thanks so much, user102008! This is very clear and helpful. Just a few follow-ups: 1) Does half of my income just mean my CA-sourced w-2 income, or does it include stock gains/losses and bank interests, which are not really from CA? 2）Tax softwares ask me the numbers on my w-2, do I just manually divide whatever number by 2? How do I explain it? 3) If we do everything on standard tax software like freetaxusa, will it figure out the tax credits on taxed paid to the other state automatically? Thanks so much again!