This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

IRS May Consider You Unmarried

Married but separated spouses usually have enough problems to deal with, but tax time brings another - should we file as Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) or as Married Filing Separately (MFS). 

Filing jointly opens the door for many valuable tax breaks denied to separate filers, including the child tax credit, deductions related to college tuition, credit for college loan interest, the Lifetime Learning tax credit, and many others.

However, many separated spouses have their own reasons for not wanting to file together, including opening the door for more conflict with their estranged spouse.

Find out what's happening in Wentzvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Another option that is available for those who are married but living apart from their spouse is to file as "Head of Household."  To qualify for this filing status you must be "considered unmarried" for tax reporting purposes.

To be "considered unmarried" for this purpose, you spouse must not have lived with you at any time during the last 6 months of the tax year.

Find out what's happening in Wentzvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Besides being "considered unmarried", to qualify for Head of Household status, you must:

  • Have paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year.
  • Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild, or eligible foster child for more than half the year.
  • You must be able to claim an exemption for the child.  However, you can still meet the test if you cannot claim the exemption only because the noncustodial parent is allowed to claim the exemption for the child.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Wentzville