Taxpayers may use the married filing jointly status if they are married and both agree to file a joint return. This includes:
- taxpayers who live together in a common-law marriage recognized by the state where the marriage began
- Common-law states: Alabama, Colorado, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas
- taxpayers who live apart but are not legally separated
- taxpayers whose spouses died during the year and who have not remarried
Both husband and wife must sign the joint income tax return. Special rules apply when a spouse cannot sign the tax return because of death, illness, or absence.
Both husband and wife are responsible for any tax owed on the joint return.
If the taxpayers later move to a state which does not recognize common law marriages, they are still considered married for federal income tax purposes.
Common-law marriages have three basic features: (1) A present agreement to be married, (2) cohabitation, and (3) public representations of marriage. taxpayer and the taxpayer's spouse are currently domiciled in a state that requires a ceremony to establish the marital relationship. See IRS Revenue Ruling 2013-17.
See also the discussion and comments from experts in this thread.
You can file jointly starting from the first year that you met the requirements to be considered married in your state. However, there are limits to the time period for which you can file an amended return. The IRS allows you to change your filing status for a tax return you’ve already filed if no more than three years have passed since the original tax filing deadline. You can amend a return to change from married filing separate to married filing joint but not from married filing jointly to married filing separate unless you do so prior to the original filing deadline without extensions. So, once you file a joint return you can not change it to a separate return if the filing deadline has already passed. See this article for more details.
Before you can file an amended return, the original return will need to have been processed by the IRS (refund issued / payment processed). Also, Form 1040-X for filing an amendment won't be available in TurboTax until February 23, 2023. See here for more information on forms availability.
See here for more information on preparing an amended return with TurboTax.
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