• Note: If the person listed as the taxpayer (as opposed to the spouse) is a nonresident alien (see Pub 4012 tab L) to help determine this), then the return is out-of-scope. 
  • Click to select the correct filing status. If you are unsure, the best options are:
  • Do not use TaxSlayer’s Filing Status Wizard. TaxSlayer does not guarantee that the wizard covers all circumstances or that the result is correct.
  • Warning: If you change the filing status in a return, TaxSlayer erases the entire State return. So if there are any doubts about a filing status, these are best resolved before creating the State return or entering any needed information in the State Section.

Married

  • An individual is “married” if they are married under domestic or foreign law as of December 31 of the tax year.
    • The IRS considers someone to be married unless there is a court decree for legal separation, including separate maintenance, or the marriage is permanently dissolved by divorce, or by death in a prior year. 
      • If there is a court decree for legal separation as of year-end, individuals must file as “Single” or, with a qualifying dependent, as “Head of Household”.
    • Rules for determining filing status apply equally to common-law marriages which were established in a state that recognizes this type of marriage.  But see CA policy under Single status, page 17.
      • CA legal note: A common-law marriage cannot be created by consent or cohabitation within California boundaries; California does not recognize such situations as creating a legal marriage. But it does recognize common-law marriages created in other states.
    • Filing rules are not affected if the spouse is a US citizen or resident alien who resided outside of the U.S. during the tax year.
    • Filing rules are not affected if the spouse does not have a Social Security number or ITIN.
  • A surviving taxpayer normally would file as MFJ if their spouse died during the tax year, with the deceased spouse still listed on the tax return.
    • Warning: It is strongly recommended that the surviving spouse be listed first on the MFJ return, particularly if the return shows a refund due.
      • Putting the surviving spouse first does not prevent Carryforward if you create the return using the SSN of the person listed first on the prior year’s return. But if you do that, you and the deceased taxpayer is listed first, you need to switch, on the Personal Information page, the two names, two SSNs, and two DOBs, and for documents carried forward, such as 1099-Rs, you need to change “Taxpayer” to “Spouse”, or vice versa. 
    • If the taxpayer remarried during the tax year, the MFJ filing would be with the new spouse, and the filing status for the tax return of the deceased spouse would be MFS. 
      • CA policy: If the deceased spouse lived with, or commingled funds with the surviving spouse for any part of the tax year, then both the MFJ and MFS returns are out-of-scope.
  • Married persons must file as MFJ, MFS, or HoH; they aren’t eligible to file as Single.
  • If either the taxpayer or spouse is geographically unavailable, an MFJ return is still in scope and can be prepared but must be done as a paper return. 
    • The taxpayer who is being helped is responsible for getting the signature of his or her spouse on the federal and state returns.
  • If the spouse is a nonresident alien, an election can be made for the spouse to be treated as a resident, in which case the spouse’s worldwide income must be included in the return. If the taxpayers wish to make this election, the return is out-of-scope the first year of this election.  See Pub 4012 page L-3.1 for more details.
  • CA policy: Tax returns for couples who are registered domestic partners (RDP) in CA are out-of-scope. 
    • Such couples cannot file as MFJ on their federal return. They are not legally married for federal tax purposes.
    • The IRS has ruled that registered domestic partners must each report, on their tax return, half the combined community income earned by the partners. Since determination of what is community income, and doing income-splitting, are both out-of-scope, doing a federal return for someone who is a registered domestic partner is out-of-scope. TaxSlayer doesn’t correctly do this. 

Married Filing Separately

  • MFJ is almost always a better filing status than MFS, in terms of taxes owed, but a married taxpayer may be unable or unwilling to file MFJ, and it does require the participation of the spouse.
  • If the taxpayer has a court decree for legal separation, at year-end, the filing status must be either Single or HoH; MFS is not an option.
  • For a taxpayer who is not legally separated, before deciding that the filing status should be MFS, make sure the taxpayer does not qualify as HoH, which is more advantageous.
    • To be qualified for the HoH status, the person must:
      • Meet all five tests shown in box 7 of the “Determination of Filing Status – Decision Tree” on page 8 of the AARP Qualifying Child or Relative Resource Tool, and
      • Meet all California conditions for filing as MFS (even though filing as HoH); see next paragraphs.
  • CA policy: CA state coordinators will decide if the districts within their split state can or cannot prepare MFS returns, including married HoH.
    • For tax year 2023, all districts in CA1, CA2 and AZ will do MFS returns, if all criteria (below) are met; all districts in CA4, CA5 and NV will not do MFS returns; and in CA3, District Coordinators will decide whether their districts will do MFS returns, for returns where all criteria below are met.
  • CA policy: In California, a community property state, Tax-Aide will prepare a return as married HoH or MFS ONLY when all the following conditions are met [these conditions are more restrictive than those in Pub 555, Community Property]:
    1. Preparation of the return is approved by the LC each year.
    2. The couple has separated, has lived apart the entire year, there was no intention to reconcile throughout the tax year, AND there continues to be no intention to reconcile.
    3. The taxpayer and spouse have not communicated about, or agreed to, an allocation of any community income.
    4. If the taxpayer has earned income, the taxpayer and spouse did not transfer, directly or indirectly, any of this earned income before the end of the year (excluding transfers satisfying child support obligations or transfers of under $100). The taxpayer must report all earned income on his or her return.
    5. The taxpayer reports all his or her Social Security payments in full on the tax return, and reports all his or her 1099-R payments in full on the tax return.
    6. The taxpayer is willing to report, and does report, both separate (that is the taxpayer’s) and community-property interest, dividends, and capital gains on the return, with nothing allocated to the spouse.
  • Filing as MFS requires the completion of Form 8958, Allocation of Tax Amounts Between Certain Individuals in Community Property State. It is recommended that you do this before entering any income.
    • Go to the Married Filing Separately Allocations (Form 8958) page [Federal > Miscellaneous Forms].
      • If you go to this form before entering any income information in TaxSlayer, you don’t need to allocate any income to the spouse.
      • [Workaround] If you go to this form after entering one or more income items in TaxSlayer, allocate $1 to the spouse for each of those items, so that TaxSlayer will allow the form to be completed.

Head of Household

  • Normally a person filing as HoH is not married. But a married person can file as HoH rather than MFS if they meet all five tests on the right side of the “Determination of Filing Status – Decision Tree” page of the Qualifying Child or Relative Resource Tool.
    • CA policy: Because CA is a community property state, a HoH return is out-of-scope for a married taxpayer unless that taxpayer has lived apart from his or her spouse for the entire year and is also out-of-scope if there was any commingling of funds during the year, excluding transfers satisfying child support obligations or transfers of under $100.  See preceding section for the 6 criteria that must be met.
      • Note: In CA4, CA5, and NV, a legally married taxpayer must file as MFJ or the return is out-of-scope.
  • If the filing status is marked as “Single”, and an entry is made in TaxSlayer’s Dependent section, TaxSlayer will then ask “You've selected a Single filing status but also added a dependent. Would you like to change your filing status to Head of Household?”
    • Do not change the filing status simply because TaxSlayer suggests this option. The “Single” status should have been selected after determining that no other person listed on page 1 of the Intake Booklet was a qualifying person for HoH status. If that determination wasn’t made, then see the discussion at the beginning of the “Filing Status” section.
  • Note for CA state returns: California requires an additional form, CA Form 3532, for those filing HoH.
    • TaxSlayer offers the option to complete this form immediately after you finish the Personal Information page. However, if the needed dependent information does not yet exist (no Carryforward, or a new qualifying dependent), then do not accept this option – complete the CA Form 3532 later.
    • Failure to complete the form will generate a warning message when starting the E-file section.
    • The page for entering information is at State Section > Basic Information > Complete California Form 3532 (Head of Household.)
      • TaxSlayer offers a drop-down list to select the qualifying child.
        • Warning: TaxSlayer lists all dependents, rather than just dependents who qualify the taxpayer for this filing status.
      • “Number of days … “ is normally “365” for those born during the year or died during the year.
      • For dependent income, enter the federal income of the dependent. 
    • [Workaround] If, in the E-file section, TaxSlayer says that there is an error in how this form was completed, review all data, and make corrections as needed. If you don’t see any errors, or TaxSlayer doesn’t change the error message after you fix a mistake, then:
      • Save and exit the return, then reopen it to see if the error message has gone away. 
      • If the error message persists, delete the entire CA state section, and create it again, being careful to correctly enter all required information in the TaxSlayer page for the Form 3552, as well as redoing any other state-related pages in which you entered information.
  • Note for CA state returns: If the taxpayer cannot file as HoH because the qualifying relative for HoH died within the previous 2 tax years, and the taxpayer was at least 65 years old at year-end, see the Senior Head of Household Credit, Code 163, CA Form 540, Page 2, lines 43-45 section, on page 115.
    • Note: This CA credit is nonrefundable. If CA Form 540, Page 2, line 34, Tax, is zero, then there is no point in adding this credit to the CA return.

Qualifying Surviving Spouse

  • QSS status preserves the benefits of filing as MFJ.
  • If the taxpayer’s spouse died within the prior 2 tax years, the taxpayer did not remarry by December 31 of the tax year, and the taxpayer has a child or stepchild for whom the taxpayer can or might have been able to claim a dependent exemption for the current tax year, the taxpayer can file as QSS.
    • A child does qualify as a dependent if he/she would have been a dependent except (a) the child’s income is too high; (b) the child is filing a MFJ return, or (c) the taxpayer is a dependent of someone else.
  • QSS status also requires that: 
    • That child must have lived in the taxpayer’s home, except for temporary absences, for the entire year.
    • The taxpayer did or could have filed as MFJ for the year of the spouse’s death.
    • The taxpayer paid more than half the cost of keeping up their home during the year.
  • If the taxpayer appears to meet the above criteria, use the resource documents listed at the top of the Filing Status section (page 14) to confirm eligibility.

Single

  • As noted above, a person who is married at year end, and has no separation agreement in place by that time, can file as MFJ (with his or her spouse); as HoH, with a qualifying dependent and if meeting all other requirements; or as MFS. What that person cannot legally do is file as Single.
  • CA policy: Because CA is a community property state, the return of a taxpayer who becomes divorced or legally separated during the tax year, and wants to file as single, is out-of-scope if the taxpayer did not live apart from his or her spouse for the entire year and is also out-of-scope if there was any commingling of funds, other than alimony paid after the date of the divorce decree or legal separation agreement.

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