The divorce became official as of November 10th, 2016. My ex-wife was the one who originally filed for divorce and when filing she checked the box stating that for 2016 taxes we would be filing jointly. Her and I spoke and now both prefer to file as individuals. Is that ok, or must we do it the way the divorce paperwork shows? I just don't want to take any possible chance of getting penalized for such action in an audit. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you so much!!
According to the IRS, "If you are divorced under a final decree by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year." Regardless of what your divorce papers say, you cannot file a joint tax return with your ex-wife. You can safely ignore the divorce paperwork.
Thank you for that. Also I left out that this all occurred in the state of Arizona. Does that have any effect on the situation? Or is it the same for all of the United States?