If you are unmarried, divorced, or legally separated according to your state law on December 31st, you must file as a single person for that year because your marital status at year end applies for the entire tax year.
Marital status is decided based on a person's marital status at year end. if your first day of legal separation or divorce from your spouse is December 31st, you cannot file a joint return for any portion of that year. Certain married individuals, not legally separated or divorced, may nonetheless be considered single for purposes of filing tax returns if they are living apart. Married taxpayers may elect to file separate returns.
Certain taxpayers who maintain their homes as principal residences of qualifying dependents and whose spouses died during either of the last two preceding taxable years may be considered Surviving Spouses as long as they have not remarried.
To qualify for the head of household filing status you must be unmarried and paid more than half the cost of a maintaining a home for yourself and another relative who lives with you for over half the year and can be claimed as your dependent. Filing as a head of household can have substantial financial benefits over filing as a single status taxpayer.
Although the joint return often produces a better result, in some cases, filing separately can be beneficial. To accommodate for such circumstances, married couples may opt to file separately for a taxable year. Married couples filing separately does not create an identical situation to the two parties filing as single.
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