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How did it get filed? If she passed in 2024 you can still file as Married Joint. Do you have a dependent? You can file a Joint return as normal the year your spouse died. For the next two years following a husband's or wife's death, the surviving spouse can file as a qualifying widow or widower if they have a qualifying child. That basically lets you continue to use the same tax brackets that apply to married-filing-jointly returns. After the year of death if you don't have a child you file as Single.
Very sorry for your loss. For the year that your spouse passed away, you can file as married filing jointly, in order to get the highest standard deduction---which for 2024 would be $29,200 + $1550 for each spouse 65 or older.
If you filed incorrectly as Head of Household---which you could only do if you have a qualifying dependent---your standard deduction would be less-- it would be $21,900 + $1950 for being 65 or older or legally blind.
So.....filing as married was correct.
And....if you do in fact have a dependent child, for 2025 and possibly 2026 you can file as a Qualified Surviving Spouse, and you get the same standard deduction as it would be on a joint tax return, which is still much better than filing as Head of Household.
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