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How to Determine Your Filing Status
Larry Denton
Your filing status is used in determining whether you must file a return, your standard deduction, and the correct amount of tax you must pay. It may also be used to determine whether you can claim certain deductions and credits. The filing status you choose depends partly on your marital status on the last day of your tax year.
If you are unmarried, your filing status is single or, in special cases where you meet certain requirements, head of household or qualifying widow(er). If you are married, your filing status is either married filing a joint return or married filing a separate return. For information about the single and qualifying widow(er) filing statuses refer to IRS Publication #501.
For federal tax purposes, a marriage means only a legal union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.
You are unmarried for the whole year if either of the following applies: you have obtained a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance by the last day of your tax year. You must follow your state law to determine if you are divorced or legally separated; or you have obtained a decree of annulment, which holds that no valid marriage ever existed. You must file amended returns (Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return) for all tax years affected by the annulment that are not closed by the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations generally does not end until 3 years after the due date of your original return. On the amended return you will change your filing status to single, or if you meet certain requirements, head of household.
Married persons. You are considered to be married for the whole year if you are separated but have not yet obtained a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance by the last day of your tax year. An interlocutory decree is not a final decree.
Married persons have two primary options when filing their tax returns. They may choose to prepare a return as: Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. If you file jointly, you both must include all your income, exemptions, deductions, and credits on that return. You can file a joint return even if one of you had no income or deductions. Or you may choose to separately file a tax return with income, exemptions and deductions divided between the respective spouses. If both you and your spouse have income, you should usually figure your tax on both a joint return and separate returns to see which charges you the least amount of tax.
Nonresident alien. To file a joint return, at least one of you must be a U.S. citizen or resident at the end of the tax year. If either of you was a nonresident alien at any time during the tax year, you can file a joint return only if you agree to treat the nonresident spouse as a resident of the United States. This means that your combined worldwide incomes are subject to U.S. income tax. These rules are explained in Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.
Signing a joint return. Both you and your spouse must sign the return, or it will not be considered a joint return.
Both you and your spouse are responsible, jointly and individually, for the tax and any interest or penalty due on your joint return. This means that one spouse may be held liable for all the tax due even if all the income was earned by the other spouse.
If you are divorced, you are still jointly and individually responsible for any tax, interest, and penalties due on a joint return for a tax year ending before your divorce. This responsibility applies even if your divorce decree states that your former spouse will be responsible for any amounts due on previously filed joint returns.
In some cases, a spouse will be relieved of the tax, interest, and penalties on a joint return. You can ask for relief no matter how small the liability. There are three types of relief available: Innocent spouse relief (which applies to all joint filers); Separation of liability (which applies to joint filers who are divorced, widowed, legally separated, or who have not lived together for the 12 months ending on the date election of this relief is filed); and Equitable relief (which applies to all joint filers who do not qualify for innocent spouse relief or separation of liability and to married couples filing separate returns in community property states)
Since each of these kinds of relief is different they each have different requirements. You must file Form 8857 to request any of these kinds of relief. For additional information about the different types of tax relief, refer to the IRS Publication #971.
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