Filing Status

Single

If you are unmarried, or if you are legally separated from your spouse under a divorce or separate maintenance decree according to your state law, and you do not qualify for another filing status, your filing status is single. Generally, your marital status on the last day of the year determines your status for the entire year.

Married Filing Jointly

If you are married, you and your spouse may file a joint return or separate returns. The rule for determining marital status is a simple one. If you are married on the last day of the tax year (December 31, for most people), you are considered to be married for the whole year. Conversely, if you are divorced during the year and don't remarry before December 31, you will be considered unmarried for the entire year.

Money Saving Tip. If you are planning a winter wedding and your income level is much higher or lower than that of your future spouse, marriage can actually lower your tax bill, and a December wedding would be preferable to a January wedding. If you are married by December 31, you'll be treated as if you were married for the whole preceding year.

However, if you and your intended have relatively similar income levels, marriage is more likely to increase your tax bill. In that case, waiting until January to get married will allow you one extra year of more favorable single status.

In a divorce situation, the parties are considered to be married until a final decree of divorce or legal separation is issued. The validity of the divorce is determined under the law of the state of domicile (legal residence). Taxpayers who live apart and have obtained an interim decree of divorce or separation, but have not yet been granted a final decree, are treated as married for tax purposes.

What about common-law marriages? Generally speaking, if your state recognizes such marriages and you meet all the state law requirements, the IRS will recognize your marriage as well.

If your spouse died and you did not remarry in the year that your spouse died, you may still file a joint return for that year. This is the last year for which you may file a joint return with that spouse.

You may be able to file as a qualifying widow or widower for the two years following the year your spouse died.

Married Filing Separately

If you are married, you and your spouse may file a joint return or separate returns. Generally, your marital status on the last day of the year determines your status for the entire year. It is usually more beneficial to file a joint return.

Head of Household (qualifying person)

Generally, to qualify for head of household status, you must be unmarried and you must have paid more than half the cost of maintaining as your home a household that was the main home for a qualifying person for more than half the year. You may also qualify for head of household status if you, though married, file a separate return, your spouse was not a member of your household during the last six months of the tax year, and you provided more than half the cost of maintaining as your home a household that was the main home for more than one half of your tax year of a qualifying person.

Qualifying Widow(er) with a Dependent Child

You can file as a qualifying widow(er) and use joint return tax rates for 2008 if all of the following apply:

• Your spouse died in 2006 or 2007 and you did not remarry before the end of 2008.
• You have a child or stepchild whom you claim as a dependent. This does not include a foster child.
• This child lived in your home for all of 2008. If the child did not live with you for the required time, see 'Exception to time lived with you' below.
• You paid over half the cost of keeping up your home.
• You could have filed a joint return with your spouse the year he or she died, even if you did not actually do so.

If your spouse died in 2008, you cannot file as qualifying widow(er) with dependent child. Instead, you may qualify to file as married filing jointly.

Exception to time lived with you. Temporary absences by you or the child for special circumstances, such as school, vacation, business, medical care, military service, or detention in a juvenile facility, count as time lived in the home.

A child is considered to have lived with you for all of 2008 if the child was born or died in 2008 and your home was the child’s home for the entire time he or she was alive.