While filing your personal tax returns, you need to file them under a filing status you would fall under. This filing status is necessarily your marital status that impacts your income and tax
computation. Typically, they are five filing status categories under which you would file your tax returns.
These categories include:
- Single
- Married filing jointly
- Married filing separately
- Head of Household
- Qualifying widow(er)
Single
You should file your taxes under ‘single’ status if, by December 31, 2020, you were:
- Never married
- Legally separated as per your state law ( decree of divorce or separate maintenance)
On the other hand, you can’t file for your taxes under the ‘single’ category if your divorce is not final
by the said date and you are considered married according to the court of law.
Married filing jointly
You would be eligible to file your taxes under the ‘Married filing jointly’ category— by checking the concerned box on Form 1040 or 1040-SR.
You can jointly file your taxes if:
- By the end of 2020, you were married — regardless of you living with your spouse
- In 2020, your spouse passed away, and you didn’t remarry
- By the end of 2020, you were married, but in 2021 before filing your 2020 tax return, your spouse passed away
Married filing separately
Even after being married, you can choose to file your taxes separately. You can opt to do this if you:
- Have a reason to believe that your spouse might not be reporting income appropriately
- Don’t want to take responsibility for the dues for your spouse’s taxes — given he or she does
not pay enough estimated tax or have tax withheld
Head of Household
If you want to file your taxes as ‘head of household’ if you are legally considered unmarried because of the following purposes:
- By the end of 2020, you are legally separated as per the decree of divorce or separate maintenance.
However, if your divorce is not final by the end of 2020, you would be considered married - Though married, you have lived separately from your spouse for year’s later 6 months of 2020— considering later you fit into the rules under married persons
- During 2020, you were married to a nonresident alien at any point in time. Also, you have not done the election to treat the alien spouse as a resident alien
Qualifying Widow(er)
You would be qualified to file taxes of 2020 under the category of a Widow or Widower, only if:
- Your spouse passed away between 2018 to 2019, and you have not remarried by the end of 2020.
- You take care of a child or stepchild— who are eligible to be claimed as dependent in the
year 2020, considering- The gross income of the child is of $4,300
- The child is filing a joint return
- If there are chances for you to be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return
Which tax filing status do you belong to for the year 2020? If you have any further doubts or queries, you can contact us. Our tax consultants will attend to your questions.