topic spuse death in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

spuse death

aribble23 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 11:05:33 GMT

my husband passed 12/2022 in january 2023 i received some disability checks in his name was told to cash them so then this year i get a w2 how do i file that with taxes when he was deceased in 12/2022 do i file joint and add his in there

Re: spuse death

RobertB4444 — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 20:00:16 GMT

For 2022 you should have filed a joint return with your husband. That return would have looked very similar to all of the returns that you have filed in the past.

For 2023 you will file as either single or a Qualifying Widow. In order to file as a qualifying widow you will need to have a child that qualifies as your dependent. If you do qualify then you will be able to file as a qualifying widow for 2023 and 2024. When you enter your information into TurboTax the system will recommend that status for you.

If you do not have any children that qualify as your dependents then for 2023 and going forward you will file as single.

Sorry for your loss.

@aribble23

Re: spuse death

Opus 17 — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 20:11:35 GMT

This is called "income in respect of a decedent." See publication 559. You report it and pay taxes on it because you are the person who is entitled to receive it after your spouse's death.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p559

You would not file a joint return, because your spouse was not alive in 2023. You will file as single (or maybe as qualifying surviving spouse, if you have dependents) and you include the income as if it was your own.

If your spouse was being paid a disability income on a W-2, but the checks were paid in the year after he died, the employer or insurance company should not have issued a W-2 and should not have withheld social security and medicare tax (box 4 and 6 on the W-2). The income should have been reported on a 1099-MISC with no taxes withheld.

In a perfect world, you would contact the payer to get the W-2 canceled and re-issued as a 1099-MISC. If they withheld social security and medicare, they should refund that. (SS and Medicare is sometimes withheld from disability but not always.). At the very least, you should contact them and request that they do this, give them a fair chance to respond, and keep copies of your correspondence. Because, if they refuse and you report the income differently (but correctly) the IRS may send you a letter, and it will be easier to explain the situation to the IRS if you can show that you asked for the correction and they refused.

If you want to file without contacting the payer, I can tell you how to do that, but I would recommend you ask them first.