According to the Maine Instructions:
A Resident of Maine is an individual that was domiciled in Maine for the entire taxable year or maintained a permanent place of abode in Maine for the tax year and spent more than 183 days there.
A Part-Year Resident is an individual that was domiciled in Maine for part of the year but is not considered a full-year resident.
A Nonresident of Maine is an individual that was neither a resident nor part-year resident but does have Maine source income.
A "Safe Harbor" Resident of Maine is an individual that was domiciled in Maine but did not maintain a permanent place of abode in Maine. Did not spend more than 30 days in the taxable year in Maine. For income tax purposes you are considered a Nonresident.
A "Foreign Safe Harbor" Resident of Maine is an individual that spent at least 450 days in a foreign country during any 548-day period occurring partially or fully in the tax year. If you qualify for the Foreign Safe Harbor, you will be considered a safe harbor resident and treated as a nonresident even though you were domiciled in Maine.
If one spouse is a resident and the other is not and a joint federal return was filed on the federal return, you may change your filing status to Single and file form NRH. Schedule NRH is located in the State Section of the Basic Information portion of the program. This is only available if you filed married filing joint on the federal return.
To change your filing status to Single please follow this pathway:
- State
- Basic Information
- Married Person Electing to File Single
- If you are a Married Person electing to file single, answer YES to question below, select who is filing and complete Schedule NRH.
- Schedule NRH