Got married on September 28, 2019. I was only married for 3 months for 2019. How do i file, single or married?

[miracle4415]

Also, if my husband filed his 2019 taxes as single and we got married in September 2019. If i file as "Married Filing Separate", how will that effect him?

[xmasbaby0]

If you were legally married at the end of 2019 your filing choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately.

Married Filing Jointly is usually better, even if one spouse had little or no income. When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $24,400 (+$1300 for each spouse 65 or older)  You are eligible for more credits including education credits, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and a larger income limit to receive the child tax credit.

If you choose to file married filing separately, both spouses have to file the same way—either you both itemize or you both use standard deduction. Your tax rate will be higher than on a joint return. Some of the special rules for filing separately include: you cannot get earned income credit, education credits, adoption credits, or deductions for student loan interest. A higher percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxable. Your limit for SALT (state and local taxes and sales tax) will be only $5000 per spouse. In many cases you will not be able to take the child and dependent care credit. The amount you can contribute to a retirement account will be affected. If you live in a community property state, you will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s income. ( Community property states:  AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI)

If  you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894449-married-filing-jointly-vs-married-filing-separately

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901162-married-filing-separately-in-community-property-states

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894449-is-it-better-for-a-married-couple-to-file-jointly-or-separ...

Best Wishes!

Your spouse messed up.  He should never have filed as single.  You are going to have a problem fixing it.  His return needs to be amended to either married filing separately or married filing jointly.      If you try to file a joint return now it will be rejected because his SSN is already in the system.  You can probably e-file a MFS return for yourself.   And later,  the two of you could amend to file jointly.  You might need a paid tax pro to help sort it out.

For your husband:

How do I amend my 2019 TurboTax Online return?

A 1040X cannot be e-filed.  It must be printed and mailed.  It will take about 4 months for the IRS to process an amended return.  It is a good idea to use a mailing service that will track it, like UPS or certified mail, so you will know it was received.

Wait about 3 weeks from mailing and you can check the status of your amended return:

https://www.irs.gov/Filing/Individuals/Amended-Returns-(Form-1040-X)/Wheres-My-Amended-Return-1

https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/amended-returns-form-1040-x/amended-return-frequently-asked-q...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1908543-do-i-need-to-amend

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3318997-how-does-the-refund-math-work-on-amendments

[nathan3leaf]

The problem with this is that it doesn't address one aspect of the OPs question, that being that she was only married for 3 months out of the previous year. This would seem to affect a few things and make calculations complicated.

[xmasbaby0]

@nathan3leaf As far as the IRS is concerned your marital status is determined on the last day of the year.   If you were legally married on December 31, you were married for the tax year, and the calculations are done accordingly.   The tax return is not separated by which part of the year the taxpayer was single and when they said "I do."