Filed taxes jointly but not married

[hernan1354]

my taxes got filed last year jointly with my girlfriend and son but we are not married. accountant never asked, he just made it jointly and gave me the returns. Didn't really understood how it worked i thought if we lived together i could file jointly. What happens now with the irs and how do i fix it?

[xmasbaby0]

You go back to the accountant who filed your tax returns incorrectly and have the accountant fix it.  You cannot file a joint return with someone to whom you are not legally married.  One of you could have filed as Head of Household to claim your child and the other one of you should have filed Single.

[hernan1354]

thank you for the quick response. That's what just did called and im waiting for a call back

[macuser_22]

And they cannot simply amend the return since a joint return cannot be changed after the due date.  The IRS must mark it as a voided invalid return which usually takes a tax professional to have done and even many tax professionals are not aware of the proper procedure.

You can tell the tax pro to refer to IRM 21.6.1.4.7, which is the section of the Internal Revenue Manual that covers an invalid joint election.

[rjs]

The section of the IRM that covers an invalid joint election is now 21.6.1.5.7.

[Anonymous]

In most cases, the IRS requires couples to be legally married to file a joint tax return. However, the IRS also allows couples who aren’t legally married but are considered married by common law to also file jointly. As of publication, only 10 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, recognize common law marriages. These include Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. 

[rjs]

Common law marriage is a legal marriage. It's just a different way of getting married.

[SweetieJean]

"accountant never asked"
So he/she never did their due diligence to even determine if a common law marriage existed.

[mrtz]

I know it’s been a while since this post but Currently in the same situation. Did your tax guy end up fixing it? How & What ended up happening? 

[KeshaH]

You will need to file an amendment to change your filing status to single. Your partner will need to file a tax return using single as their filing status. If either of you qualify for Head of Household status, you can use that one. Your partner will need to mail their return because their name and Social Security number are already on an electronically filed return.

@mrtz