Married Filing Separately

You can choose married filing separately as your filing status if you are married. This method may benefit you if you want to be responsible only for your own tax or if this method results in less tax than a joint return. If you and your spouse do not agree to file a joint return, you may have to use this filing status.

If you live apart from your spouse and meet certain tests, you may be considered unmarried and may be able to file as head of household. This can apply to you even if you are not divorced or legally separated. If you qualify to file as head of household, instead of as married filing separately, your tax may be lower, you may be able to claim the earned income credit and certain other credits, and your standard deduction will be higher. The head of household filing status allows you to choose the standard deduction even if your spouse chooses to itemize deductions. See Head of Household, later, for more information.

Unless you are required to file separately, you should figure your tax both ways (on a joint return and on separate returns). This way you can make sure you are using the method that results in the lowest combined tax. However, you will generally pay more combined tax on separate returns than you would on a joint return because the tax rate is higher for married persons filing separately.

How to file.   If you file a separate return, you generally report only your own income, exemptions, credits, and deductions. You can claim an exemption for your spouse if your spouse had no gross income and was not a dependent of another person. However, if your spouse had any gross income, or was the dependent of someone else, you cannot claim an exemption for him or her on your separate return.

If you file as married filing separately, you can use Form 1040A or Form 1040. Select this filing status by checking the box on line 3 of either form. You must also write your spouse's social security number and full name in the spaces provided. Use the Married filing separately column of the Tax Table or Schedule Y-2 of the Tax Rate Schedules to figure your tax.

Special Rules

Special rules apply if your filing status is married filing separately.

Community property states.   If you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin and file separately, your income may be considered separate income or community income for income tax purposes. See Publication 555.

Deductions, credits, and certain income.   If your filing status is married filing separately:

1. You should itemize deductions if your spouse itemizes deductions, because you cannot claim the standard deduction.
2. You cannot deduct interest paid on a qualified student loan.
3. You cannot take the credit for child and dependent care expenses in most cases, and the amount that you can exclude from income under an employer's dependent care assistance program is limited to $2,500 (instead of $5,000 if you filed a joint return).
4. You cannot take the earned income credit.
5. You cannot exclude any interest income from qualified U.S. savings bonds that you used for higher education expenses.
6. You cannot take the credit for the elderly or the disabled unless you lived apart from your spouse for the entire year.
7. You cannot take the education credits (the Hope credit and the lifetime learning credit).
8. You cannot take the exclusion or credit for adoption expenses in most cases.
9. You will become subject to the limit on the child tax credit, the limit on itemized deductions, and the phaseout of the deduction for personal exemptions at income levels that are half of those for a joint return.
10. You may have to include in income more of your social security benefits (or equivalent railroad retirement benefits) than you would on a joint return. For information on social security and railroad retirement benefits, see chapter 12.
11. You cannot roll over amounts from a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA during the year, unless you did not live with your spouse at any time during the year.
12. Your capital loss deduction limit is $1,500 (instead of $3,000 if you filed a joint return).
13. You cannot claim the credit for contributions to certain qualified plans, including IRAs (discussed next), if your adjusted gross income is more than $25,000 (instead of $50,000 if you filed a joint return).

Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs).   You may not be able to deduct all or part of your contributions to a traditional IRA if you or your spouse were covered by an employee retirement plan at work during the year. Your deduction is reduced or eliminated if your income is more than a certain amount. This amount is lower for married individuals who file separately and lived together at any time during the year. For more information, see How Much Can I Deduct? in chapter 18. For more information on the credit for contributions to an IRA, see chapter 38.

Rental activity losses.   If you actively participated in a passive rental real estate activity that produced a loss, you generally can deduct the loss from your nonpassive income, up to $25,000. This is called a special allowance. However, married persons filing separate returns who lived together at any time during the year cannot claim this special allowance. Married persons filing separate returns who lived apart at all times during the year are each allowed a $12,500 maximum special allowance for losses from passive real estate activities. See Limits on Rental Losses in chapter 10.

Joint Return After Separate Returns

You can change your filing status by filing an amended return using Form 1040X.

If you or your spouse (or both of you) file a separate return, you generally can change to a joint return any time within 3 years from the due date of the separate return or returns. This does not include any extensions. A separate return includes a return filed by you or your spouse claiming married filing separately, single, or head of household filing status.

Separate Returns After Joint Return

Once you file a joint return, you cannot choose to file separate returns for that year after the due date of the return.

Exception.   A personal representative for a decedent can change from a joint return elected by the surviving spouse to a separate return for the decedent. The personal representative has 1 year from the due date of the return to make the change. See chapter 4 for more information on filing a return for a decedent.

Head of Household

You may be able to file as head of household if you meet all of the following requirements.

1. You are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
3. A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school). However, your dependent parent does not have to live with you. See Special rule for parent, later, under Qualifying Person. A foster child must live with you all year.

If you qualify to file as head of household, your tax rate usually will be lower than the rates for single or married filing separately. You will also receive a higher standard deduction than if you file as single or married filing separately.

Kidnapped children.   A child may qualify you to file as head of household, even if the child has been kidnapped. For more information, see Publication 501.

How to file.   If you file as head of household, you can use either Form 1040A or Form 1040. Indicate your choice of this filing status by checking the box on line 4 of either form. Use the Head of a household column of the Tax Table or Schedule Z of the Tax Rate Schedules to figure your tax.

Considered Unmarried

You are considered unmarried on the last day of the year if you are legally separated from your spouse, according to your state law, under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.

You are also considered unmarried on the last day of the tax year if you meet all of the following tests.

1. You file a separate return.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year.
3. Your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the tax year. Your spouse is considered to live in your home even if he or she is temporarily absent due to special circumstances. See Temporary absences, under Qualifying Person, later.
4. Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild, or adopted child for more than half the year or was the main home of your foster child for the entire year. (See Home of qualifying person, under Qualifying Person, later, for rules applying to a child's birth, death, or temporary absence during the year.)
5. You must be able to claim an exemption for the child. However, you can still meet this test if you cannot claim the exemption only because the noncustodial parent is allowed to claim the exemption for the child. See Exception under Support Test for Child of Divorced or Separated Parents in chapter 3 for situations where the noncustodial parent is allowed to claim the exemption for the child.

The general rules for claiming an exemption for a dependent are explained in chapter 3.

If you were considered married for part of the year and lived in a community property state (listed earlier under Married Filing Separately), special rules may apply in determining your income and expenses. See Publication 555 for more information.

Nonresident alien spouse.   You are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year and you do not choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse is not a qualifying person for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as a head of household.

Earned income credit.   Even if you are considered unmarried for head of household purposes because you are married to a nonresident alien, you are still considered married for purposes of the earned income credit (unless you meet the five tests listed earlier). You are not entitled to the credit unless you file a joint return with your spouse and meet other qualifications. See chapter 37 for more information.

Choice to treat spouse as resident.   You are considered married if you choose to treat your spouse as a resident alien.

Keeping Up a Home

To qualify for head of household status, you must pay more than half of the cost of keeping up a home for the year. You can determine whether you paid more than half of the cost of keeping up a home by using the Cost of Keeping Up a Home worksheet, shown below.

Cost of Keeping Up a Home

	Amount You Paid	Total Cost
Property taxes	$	$
Mortgage interest expense
Rent
Utility charges
Upkeep and repairs
Property insurance
Food consumed  on the premises
Other household expenses
Totals	$	$
Minus total amount you paid		(     )
Amount others paid		$
If the total amount you paid is more than the amount others paid, you meet the requirement of paying more than half the cost of keeping up the home.

Costs you include.   Include in the cost of upkeep expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home.

Costs you do not include.   Do not include in the cost of upkeep expenses such as clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life insurance, or transportation. Also, do not include the rental value of a home you own or the value of your services or those of a member of your household.

Qualifying Person

See Table 2-1 to see who is a qualifying person.

Any person not described in Table 2-1 is not a qualifying person.

Home of qualifying person.   Generally, the qualifying person must live with you for more than half of the year.

Special rule for parent.   You may be eligible to file as head of household even if the parent for whom you can claim an exemption does not live with you. You must pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the entire year for your father or mother. You are keeping up a main home for your father or mother if you pay more than half the cost of keeping your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly.

Temporary absences.   You and your qualifying person are considered to live together even if one or both of you are temporarily absent from your home due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, or military service. It must be reasonable to assume that the absent person will return to the household after the temporary absence. You must continue to keep up the home during the absence.

Death or birth.   You may be eligible to file as head of household if the individual who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies during the year. You must have provided more than half of the cost of keeping up a home that was the individual's main home for more than half the year or, if less, the period during which the individual lived.

Example.   You are unmarried. Your mother, for whom you can claim an exemption, lived in an apartment by herself. She died on September 2. The cost of the upkeep of her apartment for the year until her death was $6,000. You paid $4,000 and your brother paid $2,000. Your brother made no other payments toward your mother's support. Your mother had no income. Because you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your mother's apartment from January 1 until her death, and you can claim an exemption for her, you can file as a head of household.

Table 2-1. Who Is a Qualifying Person for Filing as Head of Household? ¹

IF the person is your . . .	AND . . .	THEN that person is . . .
parent, grandparent, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, stepmother, stepfather, mother-in-law, father-in-law, half brother, half sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law	you can claim an exemption for him or her 2	a qualifying person.
	you cannot claim an exemption for him or her	NOT a qualifying person.
uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece	he or she is related to you by blood and you can claim an exemption for him or her 2, 3	a qualifying person.
	he or she is not related to you by blood 3	NOT a qualifying person.
	you cannot claim an exemption for him or her
child, grandchild, stepchild, or adopted child	he or she is single	a qualifying person. 4
	he or she is married, and you can claim an exemption for him or her 2	a qualifying person
	he or she is married, and you cannot claim an exemption for him or her	NOT a qualifying person. 5
foster child 6	the child lived with you all year, and you can claim an exemption for him or her 2	a qualifying person.
	the child lived with you all year, and you cannot claim an exemption for him or her	NOT a qualifying person.
1A person cannot qualify more than one taxpayer to use the head of household filing status for the year.
2If you can claim an exemption for a person only because of a multiple support agreement, that person cannot be a qualifying person. See Multiple Support Agreement in chapter 3.
3You are related by blood to an uncle or aunt if he or she is the brother or sister of your mother or father. You are related by blood to a nephew or niece if he or she is the child of your brother or sister.
4This child is a qualifying person even if you cannot claim an exemption for the child.
5This child is a qualifying person if you could claim an exemption for the child except that the child's other parent claims the exemption under the special rules for a noncustodial parent discussed under Support Test for Child of Divorced or Separated Parents in chapter 3.
6The term foster child is defined under Exemptions for Dependents in chapter 3.

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