Filing singly or jointly while divorcing

[Katmm]

My partner and I are getting divorced. He made approximately $200K in 2021 and I made around $20K as a contractor. He withheld tax payments and I did not. My question is would be more advantageous for me if we filed jointly or singly? We have one child which I imagine he would want to claim if we do not file jointly. Any thoughts are appreciated. 

[JohnB5677]

In general, there is an advantage to filing jointly.  However, with your relatively smaller income, it is difficult to tell.  I suggest that you either purchase TurboTax Home and Business (you can do up to five returns on one package) or sign up for three online versions (you don't pay online until you file).

You can then test the alternatives.  There are two key points:

• You will be filing the separate returns as Married Filing Separately, NOT Single.
• If one of you files with Itemized Deductions, you both must.  That would mean that you would not get the standard deduction and your itemized deduction would probably be zero.

[SweetieJean]

There are also special issues if you are in a Community Property State, where everything must generally be split 50/50.