Spouse has no taxable income

[tuckcsco]

I am filing married, filing separately for good reasons.  My spouse has no taxable income, just VA disability and Social Security.  The question I am being asked in your tax preparation is if he is using standardized or itemized deductions.  Neither is correct.  What do I do?

[ChristinaS]

You can select that your spouse is taking the standard deduction. The only real point of this question is to force you to itemize if your spouse is itemizing. If your spouse doesn't file a return, he/she can't keep you from being able to file with the standard deduction.

It is important to note that your spouse may have a filing requirement as his status is Married Filing Separately. Social Security isn't tax free on a separate return, and so, if the income is a good amount, it could be enough to require filing.

As far as the question at hand, however, you will be able to use the higher of standard or itemized as long as you don't indicate that your spouse is itemizing.

https://www.ssa.gov/planners/taxes.html