First time taxes post-divorce

[squidlady]

Was married for 20 years and I always did our taxes. Now divorced. I am self-employed.  When I did our taxes each year, I did them 3 different ways (3 returns simultaneously) because of how our finances were set up (2 "dummy" returns and the real one that was filed). Now that I am filing as SINGLE I am only doing 2 of them (using my single one as a "seed" and our joint one as a "seed" for comparison and to make sure I don't miss anyting).

Now I'm running into details like the following:

Tell us about your 2024 tax return:

The data populated from our joint return (which we filed)  is very different than the data filled in from my solo one (which was one of the dummy ones).

When TT is asking for this data from the 2024 return, it DOES want the joint data from the actual return that was filed, correct? NOT the data which was only MINE from that year, right?

I realize it's probably the actual return that they want but just want to make sure because he made a lot more money than I did in 2024 and I'm not sure what TT is doing with the 2024 data anyway. 

Thanks in advance!! 

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

It would want the 2024 info from your real joint filed return.   How did you start your 2025 return for Single?

This is mainly for the Online version but applies to Desktop too.

If you used Turbo Tax last year you should start a brand new account for yourself and not transfer from last year.  You can not remove a spouse or switch the order of names.

Filing taxes after a divorce

Filing Taxes After a Divorce: Is Alimony Taxable? - TurboTax Tax Tips & Videos

Getting Divorced article

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/getting-divorced/L2

[squidlady]

I've always used the desktop version of TT (for over 20 years) and am doing so now.

Thank you for the answer, which is what I thought.

It would take me much longer to do my taxes if I started from scratch, as there are years of legacy depreciation and other info in there, so I'm using the SOLO one to start with, but adding/changing necessary data from the ACTUAL one, if that makes any sense. On my Mac I have them both open side by side (as I did when I did the three simultaneous returns in past years).

My SOLO one (the fake one) has only my info in it and I can transfer the joint data from the ACTUAL one to make it right. I'm sure this isn't common but it makes sense to me! I'm going screen-by-screen to make sure the data in the new SOLO one matches last year's ACTUAL one. Spouse is not in the SOLO one at all, never was.

Thank you again.

[VolvoGirl]

Was your Solo one done as Single or Married filing Separate?   If you did it MFS check everywhere that any spouse info didn’t transfer into 2025.   Not sure if it’s safe to transfer MFS into Single.   

[squidlady]

Good question. It was done as SINGLE. Thanks for bringing this up!