Filing Status When You Can’t Find Your Spouse
Determining your tax filing status can be tricky at times. I see the same questions on social media and a few times per year in my office where people are confused on what filing status to use when they are estranged from their spouse. On the tax subgroup in Reddit the question popped up a few times this tax season already and with two new clients in the past week.
I included a decision tree to help you determine your filing status. However, there are details that didn’t fit within the decision tree neatly so it is important to read the text of this post to assure you are using the correct filing status.
There are several reasons when you may want to consider filing a separate return from your spouse. In rare instances your combined tax liability is smaller. Example: spouses have widely different incomes and one spouse has a very large uninsured medical expense.