I believe you misunderstood, or perhaps I didn’t explain properly, my ex, we’ll call him K; he and I used to file MFJ (for nine years) and during 2020 we were still in contact and were debating on getting back together (for the third time *eyeroll*). That January (2020) K and I decided to go ahead and file a joint return again (which was the ninth and final year), but as that year progressed we split indefinitely, went no contact and somewhat simultaneously I then began a relationship with the man I’m with right now, T, who is the man who is incarcerated. They are two different people, and I do want to be married to T who is in prison right now and T and I did previously present ourselves as married in the free world prior to his incarceration for the two years prior. Now last year my current incarcerated partner, T, and I both filed single and the IRS recognized I was no longer with my ex, K, and everything processed as normal for my return for 2021 even though K and I never requested, or processed a divorce decree.
Even though the federal government may have recognized our marriage (via tax status) we never filed the paperwork with the county, so the state doesn’t recognize the marriage, therefore no need to divorce. T and I have filed paperwork (notarized) with TDCJ for common law but everything I’ve read says it’s only valid within the TDCJ unless we take it to the county clerk and pay the fee.
i do also have T’s permission to file MFJ electronically, I just didn’t know if I can just do it.
as a side note, I found out from a mutual friend that K has in fact gone on to get legally married (the officiant, the certificate, wedding with 250 people etc) to another woman as of last November. By him certifying his marriage to whoever she is with the county, Texas did not stop him to tell him he couldn’t do that because he was married to me.
also T and I, we do not have any joint accounts. He hasn’t had a bank account in almost ten years as he worked for his step dad (who is a small construction demo business owner) And received cash payments, and a 1099 for 2021 and for the Corona Virus stimulus checks, he received paper checks in the mail. We had a lease agreement together (and an attempted eviction that was resolved) that was the only thing we shared as in legal documents prior to his sentencing but I moved out last august when the lease was up.
