Changes In Filing Status?

Question

My husband and I have been seperated for over a year with no paperwork filed. Last year we filed married and split the money because we had lived together 6 mths out of that year.

But I need to know if I should change my filing status from married to another because this year we cannot file married because we have lived apart for over a year.

Currently I file no exemptions and our 2 children live with me and have since July of 06. But we have no custody agreement. In order for me to file head of household, do I need to change my filing status with my job?

I just want to avoid any unnessacary fees or penalties. Any incite would be helpful. Thank you.

My children live with me and I pay for everything. Except he pays child support through a court order.

Answer 1

Your marital status on the last day of the year dictates you filing status for the entire year. If you were married on the last day of the year, you only have two choices with one exception. You can be married filing jointly or married filing separately. Most married couples file jointly, if you do you need to know that your tax liability will probably be lower but, you are just as responsible for your husbands taxes as he is for yours. If either of you has a tax problem and you file jointly the IRS doesn’t care who it gets the money from.

One way to be sure this doesn’t happen is to file separately. If you check pub 501 p 6 there are 11 things that you aren’t allowed to do or are limited such as; you can’t get the earned income credit or the hope or lifetime learning credit. This is how you end up paying more filing separately.

In the first paragraph I said there is an exception. You can use the head of household filing status if you meet the following; you didn’t live with your spouse the last six months of the year, you file a return separately from your spouse, you paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home, you have a qualifying child that lived in your home more than half the year, and in most cases you must claim the child as a dependant.

This won’t work if you lived with someone else who paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home such as a family member or boyfriend.

If you can’t file head of household, figure you taxes both ways joint and separate, then decide what is best for you. I notice you say he pays child support. Check to see if the special rules for divorced or seperated parents apply pub 501 p11. Even if he can claim the children as dependents, you can still claim them for the earned income credit, head of household filing status, and the dependant care credit.

One last thing to remember if you file a joint return, you can't change to seperate after the filing season is over. This is to prevent a spouse from excaping tax liability in the case of an audit.

Answer 2

You could live apart for 50 years and still file a joint return if you could agree on that. There is no time limit as long as you are still legally married.

Since you haven't lived together during the second half of 2007, you could file as head of household as long as you are providing over half of the cost of keeping up the household for your kids. Note that if you are living with your parents or something like that, and THEY are paying most of the cost of maintaining the household, you couldn't file as Head of Household.

You don't have to make any W-4 changes - just file that way on your tax return.