Married Filing Separately: Tax Question of the Day
Today's question comes from H. Hester in Georgia. She asks, "If you are married, can you file your taxes separately?"
Yes, married couples can file their tax returns separately from each other. You do this by choosing the "married filing separately" filing status on Form 1040 (box 3 on page one of Form 1040). Each spouse will file his and her own Form 1040. Each will also report the other spouse's Social Security Number at the top of the form, and will write-in the spouse's name in the area next to box 3.
There are some very good reasons for wanting to file separately. I detail those reasons in my article on Choosing Your Filing Status.
In general, married couples will have a lower overall tax bill if they file a joint return. Also, couples filing separately will lose out on a number of important tax breaks. Nonetheless, filing separate returns makes the most sense when one spouse owes a significant amount of money, but the other spouse could get a refund. It also makes sense when one spouse is cheating on their taxes, and the other spouse doesn't want to be involved.
Filing separate returns requires a great deal of cooperation and sharing. Both spouses must itemize or take the standard deduction. (They cannot split their tax strategies by one person itemizing and the other taking the standard deduction.) Also, there may be significant state tax issues if the couple lives in a community property state. In those nine states, spouses report their individual income on their federal return, but report half of their combined income on their state return. This makes filing separately a much more complicated process, and many couples seek out a tax professional to make sure all the returns are accurately prepared.
Because of these complexities, I sometimes advise couples who regularly file separate returns to get divorced. That way each spouse can file as single or perhaps head of household, and be placed in a more advantageous tax situation. That being said, couples rarely get married or divorced solely for tax reasons.
Throughout the tax season I will be answering one tax question per day. Do you have a question? Visit the Ask a Tax Question page. Disagree with my answers? Post your comments in the Tax Forum.
Comments
what is my spouses liability if we file separately, and I owe but do not pay my taxes in full and do a payment plan.
If you file separate returns, you will each have a separate tax liability. If you owe the IRS and don’t pay, then your spouse will not be responsible for your tax debt. She would be responsible only for her own taxes.
how will the tax rebate be handled if my wife and I use the married filing separetly option
I just got married and I will be filing married this year. My new spouse has tax liabilities for previous years from filing single. We will be filing jointly this year. Do I inherit her previous tax liabilities?? How will it effect our joint tax return if we get a refund???
My wife and i file married separate even though we pay more federal tax, we pay significantly lower Ohio state tax. The net is about $600 better to file married separate. My wife’s income is about $95,000 and my income is about $45,000. Together our total income is about $145,00, less than the $150,000 threshold for receiving the full $1,200 tax rebate. My understanding is that if we file separately, my wife will not receive any rebate because she is over the individual threshold of $87,000. Will we have to forfeit $600 of the federal rebate because of Ohio’s tax rate which penalizes married couples, or will the IRS look at our total income in figuring the amount of rebate we are entitled to? Because we have to furnish each other’s social security numbers on our tax returns, would the IRS should calculate our rebate on the total of both our incomes? If we lived in a state with no income tax, or one that did not penalize married couples like Ohio does, we would file jointly/.
ANY SUGGESTIONS?
Dan: The rebate will be calculated based on your separate returns. So it sounds like you will get your rebate, but your wife won’t get her’s. She might then be able to claim a credit for any unpaid rebate on her ‘08 tax return.
I want to fill out married filing separately since we are not living together almost for 1 year, but I do not have her social security number and she does not want to give it to me, so what Could I do in this case?
Please
Antonio: If you ever filed a joint return (such as last year perhaps) look on that return to find her SSN. You might also have her SSN buried in some personal documents such as insurance policies or tax statements. If you still cannot find it, file the return on paper. Where it asks for her SSN write “see attached” and then attach a note explaining how you asked her for her SSN but she didn’t want to give it to you.
our daughter filed my wife as her dependent. I receive a disability check from government. If I file a tax return with the disability income, will I get a rebate check.
My wife had significant med expenses that will exceed 7.5% of her income but not mine. Everything held equal, is it a good strategy to file separately?
Shawn, this is one situation where it might be better to file separately. Still, I’d run the numbers both ways (jointly/separately) to make sure you’re coming out ahead. And remember, if she itemizes you’ll need to itemize too.
My AGI is ~45,000, and my wife is ~85,000. We have a child and two other dependents. If we file a joint return, we could not get child tax credit. But if I file separate return with my child, then I could get $1000 of child tax credit, right? My wife could file return with other two dependents to get more deduction. But if we have joint broker account, how do we split our dividend and capital gains or losses? Eg. if i have $2900 capital loss, if we file separately, could she claim $1500 loss and I claim $1400? Thanks for any suggestion!
What do I enter in the past years gross income part if efiling online ? I am filing as “married filing seperately” and it asks me for my past years adjusted gross income. The year it is referring to, my husband and I filed jointly, so it is wanting me enter just my income or both for the last years adjusted gross income ?
Hi,
I’m a British man working in the states and am now divorced. My wife never had a SS number as she never moved here, we got divorced about a year ago. Last time i filed jointly and didn’t get any money back as there was no SS number for my wife.. now that I am divorced, do i file as single? and will i owe more tax now? or do i just do what i did last year? sorry but i am not good with tax issues! thanks
Brian, you are now unmarried, and so the only two options for filing status is single or head of household. Your taxes will likely be about the same, since you never got any tax benefit by claiming your wife on your return. You might want to consider talking to a tax accountant as we can help find ways to lower your taxes and make sure everything is filed properly.
C Davidson, enter the AGI from your tax return. What’s happening behind the scenes is the IRS servers match this numerical figure with your AGI from last year as a way to verify that you are yourself. (That is, as a way to verify your identity.) Entering this doesn’t affect your tax calculations.
I currently work 2 jobs and one does not take taxes out so I end up claiming the income and getting hit harder when it comes time for my refund. My wife is just about to start working part time and we have two kids. A friend recommended that we file separately next year with her claiming the kids so I can pay the taxes and she can get a larger refund and also the EIC. Is this good advice?
My husband doesn’t want to claim his income on our income tax, so I am filing “married filing separate” so that I am not liable for his tax burden. However we live in California so does this mean that I am still liable for his State tax burden?
Hey, i’m married active military. my wife and i will be getting a divorce when i return from Afghanistan. she choose to file sep and not tell me until now. how will this effect me when i’m getting extra money to support her back in the states? will i end up owing money? I will be filing as a california resident. ANY info would be grealty appreciated.
Advising couples to get divorced solely for TAX ADVANTAGES?! As a tax preparer and a HUMAN, sir you have crossed a line! Disturbing, simply disturbing…
its my first time to file an income tax.
im married but me and my husband are not living together anymore for about a yr.
i do have his social security number and i want to file a separate income tax return but the problem is i can’t contact him and i dont have an idea what status is he going to put on his income tax. can i still file my income tax as married filing separate? what if we put different status(since i cant get a hold of him)on our returns,are we going to get in trouble?
by the way i live in AK and he’s in OR
any advice?
Shimatta, if you have a son or daughter, you could file as head of household. This will provide better tax rates and deductions than filing separately. Otherwise, just fill out all the information you have, and mail in your tax return. His SSN could be on a previous tax return, if you have copies. If you don’t have copies, you might be able to obtain copies from the IRS by calling 1-800-829-1040. Since you don’t know if he’s itemizing or not, I would error on the side of caution and use the standard deduction for yourself. Hope this helps.
I want to file “married filing separate” so that I am not liable for my husbands tax burden. However we live in California so does this mean that I am still liable for his State tax burden?
My income is about $135,000 and my wife’s is $38,500. However, she is an independent contractor and her employer does not take any taxes out, so we’ll have quite a bit to pay in Federal and State income tax on her income. In this case, it would seem best to file separately- is that correct? We have a 2-year old child if that makes any difference. Thanks!
My wife went behind my back and filed her own taxes, she file separate from me (married filling separately). In the past we have always filed together (married filling jointly) which makes the most sense we get more money back. We have three kids together. This year she filed by her self she claimed two of the kids and got money back. How much? She does not want to answer that question. If we had filed together we would of received 3,200.00 dollars back, but instead I filed my taxes and claim one child and now I have to pay back $6000.00 Everything was all ready to go and when the account submitted the tax return electronically it said that the social security number had already already been in use (my wife social security number). My accountant that does our taxes said that I need to contact the IRS and fight it. What are my options? My wife does not want to do a 1040X. I make 3 times more money annually than my wife makes. Yes we still live together, we have been living together for the past 7 years. Any help anyone can advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Yes this action for divorce.
Andy, sorry to hear about your tax troubles. The error message probably refers to the dependent being claimed on your tax return. If your wife claimed two of the three dependents, then just be sure to claim the 3rd child on your’s. If you are reporting the right dependent on your return, but still getting the same e-file rejection code, then you will need to mail your tax return in rather than e-filing. Your accountant should have been able to explain this to you.
There’s not much else you can do in terms of optimizing your return. For separate returns, it’s mostly a matter of making sure your are claiming the deductions and tax credits that are available to you. But in general filing separately generally results in higher taxes for both spouses.
Yes I did claim the last child on my tax return. But it was still not enough. The error message was due to the fact that my wife had already filed before my accountant filed the tax return.
It’s not merely because your wife filed first. That by itself doesn’t create the e-filing problem. The problem arises when a name/SSN combo on your tax return is already used on another tax return. Most often this is because a dependent has already been claimed on another tax return filed previous to yours. And that’s what leads me to suspect that maybe the dependent you claimed was also claimed by your wife. So it’s possible that using another dependent will make the efile go through. Your accountant has the exact efile error code, and will be able to confirm if this is the case or not. The idea here is to make sure you are claiming the dependent that she didn’t claim so that the IRS won’t have any further questions about your return.
So you mean to say that the error was caused by one of the dependants social security has already being used. Not that my wife social security number has already been used.
Yes, that’s what I suspect, Andy. The only reason your wife’s name/ssn would cause a problem is if you attempted to file a joint return.
I make $23 K and my husband makes $120 K.
i feel it is very unfair my measly salary is taxed at such a high rate. would filing separately make sense for us? we own, not rent, and itimize our chartitable deductions, btw.
Caroline, I sympathize with your situation. The only way to sell for sure is to run the numbers both ways: MFJ vs. 2 MFS returns and see what’s the lowest tax cost.