Not sure what you mean by "in the correct time frame." We are sorry for your loss. For the year that your spouse passed away, you can file a joint return and use the married filing jointly higher standard deduction. For the next two years after the loss of a spouse, you can file as a Qualifying Surviving Spouse IF you have a dependent child or step child to claim as a dependent--that way you still get that higher standard deduction. If you do not have any dependent children to claim, then you file as Single and get the standard deduction for Single filing status.
When your filing status changes to Single, it is best to start a new account with a new user ID. It is too difficult to delete the embedded information from a spouse if you use the same account that was used for past joint returns.
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
