Q. Can I claim head of household?
A. No. You cannot file Single either. Your only choices are Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.
Q. My husband only gets social security and VA compensation and is not required to file taxes.
A. He does "have to" file taxes. Although Social security (SS) only becomes taxable when added to sufficient other income, all SS is reportable for a person required to file as Married Filing Separately (MFS)*. He would have to file MFS, if you filed separately.
Q. How do I go about getting all the credits still?
A. You must file as Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) to get the more generous credits.
Q. He owes child support, so I do not want the IRS to take MY refund.
A. You can file jointly and file an Injured Spouse Allocation Form 8379 with your return. That will keep the IRS from taking your refund. To access that in TurboTax, type> form 8379, injured spouse <in the find (search) box. Then click find. Then click on Jump to…. You will be taken to questions about Innocent Spouse and Injured Spouse. Do not check anything on Innocent Spouse (that comes up first) and check the information on Injured Spouse.
*Social security (including SSDI) becomes taxable when your income, including 1/2 your social security, reaches:
Married Filing Jointly(MFJ): $32,000
Single or head of household: $25,000
Married Filing Separately and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year: $0.
You may be thinking that filing Married Filing Separately (MFS) is going to save you money, because you won't have to add your spouse’s income to your return. That thinking is usually wrong. There is a special rule that says SS becomes taxable at zero ($0) other income when Filing as MFS. The doubled standard deduction will usually wipe out most of the spouse’s income, on a joint return. And you will still get the use the lower joint filing rates and claim the credits.
