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Level 2
April 15, 2020
Question

Married filling separately - but I had no income?

Hello, my wife has already filed her taxes months ago and put that we would be married filing separately.  I was not planning to file since I was a student and had 0 income, but now have no option to apply for the stimulus check.  Every non-filer form only has options to file as Single or Married-filing jointly and I can't find any solution.  Is there a way I could file with 0 income and still be eligible for the stimulus program?

9 replies

Level 15
April 15, 2020

Use the single option to register for the stimulus payment since there is no married filing separately option. 

matt3892Author
Level 2
April 15, 2020

I tried that shortly after posting and received the following in an email shortly after:

 

For the filing status selected in the return, the Primary SSN in the Return Header must not be the same as Spouse SSN on another return with filing status Married filing separately.

Level 15
April 15, 2020

Are you sure your spouse did not file a Married Filing Jointly tax return? That would be the error message if this is what happened.