Hi all,
I know I’m late in doing my taxes, but I’m finally doing them and I have a question since this is the first time I’m attempting to do them on my own.
I live in the state of Ohio and my husband and I have been separated since last September when he moved out of the house but we haven’t gotten around to filing the divorce papers, although it will happen (we’re no backing out, we’ve just procrastinated the issue), can I file as “single” or do I have to file as “married filing separately”. I should also mention that so far I don’t get any child support or alimony or any money for that matter and the kids live with me and are supported entirely by me, so I don’t know if “head of household” is another option for me.
Thank you all for all your help!
Thank you ladies for all your help, I spoke to my husband and we’ll be filling jointly; we are on very good terms so we have no problem doing this, but I will use this situation to pressure him to fill out his part of the dissolution papers asap so we’re not on this situation next year.
Call the IRS and ask the question.
My gut instinct is... you are still legally married so married filing separately would be my answer.
Since I am not separated or divorced, I don't know if IRS makes any adjustments in this type of case.
Good luck
Legally you were married as of 12/31/2013. You have to file Married jointly or married seperate. You really need to get your divorce underway and get the order to establish the child support/custody. Right now with no order in place your soon to be ex could file Married but seperate and claim the children as dependents and you would not be allowed to claim them if he filed first. Call IRS to verify and they will tell you the same thing.
I hope this helps. I was in the same boat and it lit a fire under me
You should probably be filing jointly.
If you can, at all cost, avoid filing "married filing single" -- big penalties for that. You can file jointly until your divorce is final.
If you are using Turbo Tax or even one of the others, it will tell you that if you were legally married on 12/31/2012 - you are married. You can select and file, married, filing separately.
You can call the IRS - they will also help you with any questions you might have regarding head of household, dependent care credit etc. you need to ensure your husband is NOT claiming you OR the children as his dependents. That can REALLY mess stuff up!!
Good luck!! I'm sorry your marriage is over!
You need to first talk to your husband and find out how he filed. As you soon as you file it will effect what he did and how he filed will effect your options.
In a nutshell you are still married so you cannot! file single, you cannot file head of household. The penalties for married filing single is a higher tax rate and lower deductions. It isn't like they take your first born. If you think there is going to be a fight over splitting a refund check it is your best way to go.
What you need to look at is if you file separately who is claiming what deductions, that is why you need to find out what your husband did. He may have to amend his taxes if he already filed.
To determine filing jointly v separately, it is a function of expense. To file jointly you will get more back from the IRS but will your attorney have to file an injunction to keep him from taking all the money, will you have earned more and he will want an even split. Only you know the numbers to plug in there.
_________________________
Just feel like I need to throw this out there. Not only did I go through a separation and divorce but I hold a masters in accounting. I know tax law. It does not matter how long or how far you are separated, if you were married on December 31st you are married for tax purposes.
If you are still married as of 12/31 of the prior year, you have to file either MFS or MFJ. For most people, MFJ is more advantageous than MFS. My husband and I have been separated for 18 months. We still file joint because we would rather split the money between ourselves than give the government money they are not entitled too. Just an FYI regarding child support and alimony. There are no tax consequences associated with child support. However, alimony is considered taxable income to the people who receives it and a tax deduction to the person who pays it. In other words, if you receive alimony, you will have to pay income tax on the money. There is $0 withholding on this money so you will owe the tax with your tax return. In contrast, money you earn at work has federal, state and possibly city tax withheld on your behalf so you don't have to pay all of the tax at the end of the year. Hope this helps. Private message me if you like.
I agree with the previous poster - "married filing separately" does entail penalties, and i only know this because my husband and i looked into that option when i was in default on my federal student loans. we were afraid it would affect it, but when we filed jointly, we not only got more money back, but we had no problem with the EIC (earned income credit) on our child. in fact, we got more money back that way than if i had filed separately. my former bankruptcy lawyer (i never filed BK, but consulted) also told me that if we file separately, we have to claim the same itemizations, if we itemized. so if you and your husband are on friendly enough terms, i would at least try to get together and do the taxes together. but be sure the money goes into an account you both can access!! H&R Block put our return on a MasterCard with only my husband's name on it. i had issues using it some places where they wanted photo ID. good luck!
You are still married, therefore you have to file as married. Whether or not it's separately or with your husband is up to you. Think about it. You are not single; therefore you cannot file as single.
When my husband and I were separated we found that we were both better off filing together.
Below site say you have to be unmarried to file Head of Household.
http://taxes.about.com/od/filingstatus/qt/headofhousehold...
How are you going to even file your taxes if you don't have the tax information put out by the IRS? If you're planning to use a tax service, they will know the answers to all of your questions.
I used to prepare taxes before I became a Mom and the rules used to be if your spouse has not lived with you in the last 6 months of the year and you have kids then you can file Head of household. You should call the IRS to check but our rule of thumb was if he moved out around Memorial Day then you can use Head of Household. Good luck!!
