At the end I'm a head of household but should I file as married/unmarried or single if I'm married but unofficially separated? I have two children dependent!

[JulieH1 · Accepted solution]

Generally, Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) will get a family the most tax benefit but if your spouse does not want to file together then you have other options.

Head of Household (HOH) is usually more beneficial for the taxpayer than Married Filing Separately(MFS) because you lose several key tax breaks with MFS.

If you and your spouse lived apart for half of the year and you paid for your own household, then you can do HOH.

You cannot file Single if you were married on 12/31/17.

[Hal_Al]

If you and your spouse lived apart for THE LAST half of the year, then you can do HOH.

[JulieH1]

Yes.  Hal_Al thanks for clarifying that

[tamar2016]

what if I'm considered as unmarried!

[Hal_Al]

The term "considered unmarried", for purposes of HOH,  means you are married but lived apart from your spouse for the last half of the year. It's not how you feel about your situation.

[tamar2016]

We've been living separately for almost 5 years, so we are actually seperated but unofficially!

[tamar2016]

I know that I can file as HOH but my question is to put MFS (in this case I'll lose my children's credit) or single?

[Hal_Al]

You want to file as HoH. You lose nothing, and gain over MFS. You're not allowed to use Single. You are not considered unmarried for purposes of filing Single.  You are  considered unmarried for  the purpose of filing HoH. Silly as that sounds, that's the rules.

You can still file as MFJ; the two of you would just have to agree to do so.

[tamar2016]

Thanks for the clarification! But I didn't find HOH as a choice if I put married?

[Hal_Al]

TT will assign MFS after you tell it that you wont file with your spouse. You then click edit on filing status and it will take you thru the interview for HoH

[tamar2016]

Got it! Great, thank you.