Filing Status: What It Is, How to Choose in 2024-2025

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- Federal: $79 to $139. Free version available for Simple Form 1040 returns only.
- State: $0 to $69 per state.
- Expert help or full service filing is available with an upgrade to Live packages for a fee.
Tax filing status options
Filing status | Who might use it |
---|---|
Single | Unmarried people who don’t qualify for another filing status. |
Married filing jointly | Most married couples. |
Head of household | Unmarried people paying at least half the cost of housing and support for others. |
Qualifying surviving spouse (formerly known as qualifying widow or widower) | People who lost a spouse recently and are supporting a child at home. |
Married filing separately | Married high earners, people who think their spouses may be hiding income, or people whose spouses have tax liability issues. |
Single
- There are rules about being unmarried. If you’re legally divorced by the last day of the year, the IRS considers you unmarried for the whole year. If your marriage is annulled, the IRS also considers you unmarried even if you filed jointly in previous years.
- Don't be sneaky. The IRS can make you use the “married filing jointly” or “married filing separately” tax filing status if you get a divorce just so you can file single and then remarry your ex in the next tax year. Translation: Don’t get divorced every New Year’s Eve for tax purposes and then get married again the next day — the IRS is onto that trick.
Married filing jointly
- You file together. You report your combined income and deduct your combined allowable deductions and credits on the same forms. You can file a joint return even if one of you had no income or deductions.
- There are rules about divorce. If you were legally divorced by the last day of the year, the IRS considers you unmarried for the whole year. That means you can’t file jointly that year. If your spouse died during the tax year, however, the IRS considers you married for the whole year. You can file jointly that year, even if you don’t have kids in the house.
- You're both responsible. Note that when you file jointly, the IRS holds both of you responsible for the taxes and any interest or penalties due. This means you could be on the hook if your spouse doesn’t send the check or flubs the math.
Head of household
- It's not arbitrary. You can’t use this tax filing status if you’re simply the one who makes the most money in your family. In the eyes of the IRS, this tax filing status is only for unmarried people who have to support others.
- There are rules about being unmarried. The IRS considers you unmarried if you’re not legally married. But you can also be considered unmarried for this purpose if your spouse didn’t live in your home for the last six months of the tax year (temporary absences don’t count), you paid more than half the cost of keeping up the house, and that house was your dependent's main home. The cost of keeping up a home includes property taxes, mortgage interest or rent, utilities, repairs and maintenance, property insurance, food and other household expenses.
- There are rules about dependents. To use this filing status, there also has to be a “qualifying person” involved. In general, that can be a person under 19, or under 24 if the person is a student, who lives in your house for more than half the year. It can also be a parent, and in that case, the parent doesn’t have to live with you — you just have to prove you provide at least half their support. In some situations, your siblings and in-laws also count if you provide at least half their support. Be sure to read IRS Publication 501 for specifics.
- Federal: $79 to $139. Free version available for Simple Form 1040 returns only.
- State: $0 to $69 per state.
- Expert help or full service filing is available with an upgrade to Live packages for a fee.
Qualifying surviving spouse
- You have time. If your spouse died during the tax year, you can file jointly in the year your spouse died. Then, for the next two years, you can use the qualifying surviving spouse status if you have a dependent child. For example, if your spouse died in 2024 and you haven't remarried, you can file jointly for 2024 and then file as a qualifying surviving spouse.
- The kids are key. If the kids are already out of the house when your spouse dies, this status probably won’t work for you, because you have to have a qualifying child living with you. You also have to provide more than half of the cost of keeping up the house during the tax year.
Married filing separately
- For example, if you're thinking of or are in the process of divorcing and don't trust that your spouse is being upfront about income, or if you've recently married someone who is bringing tax problems into the mix, filing separately might be worth thinking about.
- This filing status might also make sense if one spouse has a large number of out-of-pocket medical expenses they would like to deduct, but your combined adjusted gross income precludes them from taking full advantage of the deduction.
- Filing separately isn’t the same as filing single. Only unmarried people can use the single tax filing status, and their tax brackets are different in certain spots from those married and filing separately.
- Both spouses must be on the same page. If you opt to use this filing status, both you and your spouse must either itemize or take the standard deduction. If your spouse itemizes, you have to itemize, too, even if the standard deduction would get you more. You’ll also have to decide which spouse gets each deduction, and that can get complicated.
- People who file separately often pay more than they would if they file jointly. Here are a few reasons:
- You can’t deduct student loan interest.
- You may not be able to take the credit for child and dependent care expenses. Also, the amount you can exclude from income if your employer has a dependent care assistance program is half of what it is if you file jointly.
- You may not be able to take the earned income tax credit.
- You may not be able to take exclusions or credits for adoption expenses in most cases.
- You can’t take the American opportunity or lifetime learning credit.
- Your standard deduction is half that of people married filing jointly.
- The deduction for retirement savings contributions is also half that of couples filing jointly.
- You can deduct only $1,500 of capital losses instead of $3,000.
- If you’re on certain income-based student loan repayment plans, filing separately could reduce your monthly bill if your payments are based only on your income rather than on your joint income as a couple.
The bottom line
Article sources
- 1. Internal Revenue Service. Publication 501. Accessed Nov 7, 2024.
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