confused about how to file????

Question

my husband is in prison since the end of january he only workrd about 2 weeks,I want to know do I still file joint or seperate and also can I file head of household and claim the earned income credit for our daughter and still get my usuall few thousand back???

Answer 1

Being incarcerated (in jail) is not a reason to file any differently than if they were not. Your best bet is to still file Married Filing Jointly (MFJ). Include all his income (if any) and yours. Take the paperwork to him in jail and ask him to sign it. They will let you. Otherwise, you need to get a valid "Power of Attorney" and attach it to the return. Unfortunately, your spouse will have to sign the PoA form, but he'll only need to sign it once. You can use it for many things. You should do this anyway.

Filing MFJ not only allows you to get all of the Credits, it is actually better than filing "Head of Household". If you are unsure of the power of attorney, see the link I have attached below. If you do file Head of Household, your spouse will have to file as "Married Filing Separately". You'll do 2 tax return instead of one and you'll be worse off.

Answer 2

Generally, you may claim head of household filing status on your tax return only if you are unmarried and pay more than 50% of the costs of keeping up a home for yourself and your dependent(s) or other qualifying individuals. With that being said if you did not live with your spouse for more than half the year or during the latter 6 months of the year you should be safe filing HOH. This informations is based on CA law so you may want to contact the IRS 800-829-1040

Answer 3

First, the EIC can be claimed with a 'Married filing Jointly' filing status. You can't claim the EIC if you file 'Married filing Separately.

It appear that you may qualify for Head of Household because your husband did not live with you during the last 6 months of the year. You should ask a tax professional to be sure.