You must determine your filing status before you
can determine whether you must file a tax return, your standard
deduction and your tax. You also use your filing status to
determine whether you are eligible to claim certain deductions
and credits.
If more than one filing status applies to you,
choose the one that will give you more deductions and credits
and a higher refund. Ultimately, choose the one that gives you the lowest
tax.
You are considered unmarried for the entire year
if on the last day of your tax year, you are unmarried. You are
also considered unmarried for the entire year on the last day of the year,
you are legally separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree. If
you are divorced under a final decree by the last day of the year, then you
are considered single.
If you obtain a divorce for the sole purpose of
filing a tax return as unmarried individuals, and at the time of
the divorce you intend to and and do, in fact, remarry each
other in the next tax year, you and your spouse must file as
married individuals in both years. This has been a
scheme for a while now. Taxpayers are still doing this to take advantage of
the lower tax rates. Before you try this or other schemes, get advise from
the IRS or tax professionals who can enlighten you further. Buying into any
tax scheme or tax evasion scheme can be very costly.
If you obtain a court decree of annulment, which
holds that no valid marriage ever existed, you are considered
unmarried even if you filed joint returns for earlier years. You should
amend your tax returns if you have filed returns as married filing jointly
for years for which this annulment of marriage applies.
There's a difference between a divorce and an
annulment. A court grants a divorce to mark the end of a marriage that was
was valid, whereas an annulment is for a marriage that at no time was valid.
The IRS holds to this idea in applying the tax laws to annulments. For
example, Jay and Thelma married in 2008, filed a joint return for that year,
and had their marriage annulled after the filing deadline. Because their
marriage was declared null and void from its very inception, they're
considered to be unmarried at the end of 2008. Consequently, they were
ineligible to file jointly and therefore they must undue their joint return
by filing a an amended returns as unmarried taxpayers. This means that they
will probably be liable for taxes at the single rate and will probably be
liable for interest or penalties.
If you are married and are considered unmarried,
you may be able to file as Head of household or as qualifying widow(er) with qualifying
child. If you are married and are considered unmarried for
tax purposes, it does not mean that you can file a return using the single
filing status. Therefore, if you are considered married, you and your
spouse must file as either married filing jointly or married
filing separately. Furthermore, if you are married or considered married, you and
your spouse can file as married filing jointly or filing
separately but never as single. Also, if you are married and can be considered
unmarried for tax purposes, you and/or your spouse can file as
Head of Household, married filing jointly, married filing separately, but
never as single. You are considered married for the whole year if,
on the last day of your tax year, you and your spouse are
married and living together. You cannot be considered unmarried for head of
household tax purposes if you are married and living together at the end of
the year.
