Incarceration is considered being temporarily away from home and doesn't affect your filing status. Thus treat the time that your spouse was incarcerated as if he/she was living at home.
The main thing that would affect your filing status is your marital status. If you are married and want to file Married Filing Jointly (MFJ), you can. Or you can file Married Filing Separately, but you lose various credits by filing MFS and your taxes are higher. If you are legally separated or a divorce is final as of the last day of the tax year, you can file single, or head of household (HH) (if you qualify for HH given that you have a dependent that lived you and some other requirements).
MFJ is the most advantageous filing status from a taxing/credits/thresholds perspective. HH is slightly less advantageous. Single is a bit worse. MFS is the worst in terms of tax rate and tax benefits.
There is a way of filing head of household if you are "considered unmarried," which has some rules associated with it, but in your case, a spouse being away from the home due to special circumstances doesn't qualify you for such. Otherwise, if your spouse and you didn't live together for all of the last six months of the year, you could use HH (if you had a dependent that lived with you and you met other qualifications).
If my husband was incarcerated for the entire year can I still file MFJ?
So if I file mfj can the with hold his back child support from my taxes even though he hasnt worked and has recently been incarcerated?
Yes the IRS can offset your refund for child support owed by your spouse if you file a joint return. You may be able to file as "injured spouse" to protect your part of the refund if you file a joint return. You do not say how long he has been incarcerated. If you lived apart for at least the last six months of 2018 you *might* be able to file as head of household instead of filing a joint return. Perhaps you should share some more information with us in order to get more help. (But please no personal information).
INJURED SPOUSE
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1910698-how-do-i-file-form-8379-injured-spouse-allocation
Am I Head of Household?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1894553-do-i-qualify-for-head-of-household
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2900097-what-is-a-qualifying-person-for-head-of-household
If you qualify as Head of Household, when you enter your filing status (single or married filing separately) into Personal Info, and then enter your qualifying dependent, TurboTax will offer HOH as your filing status.
Can i file my husband while being locked up but we never lived together and just got married do i have to ?
We need a few details. What do you mean by "file my husband?" You cannot claim him as a dependent if that is what you mean. You cannot claim a spouse as a dependent.
If you were married in 2019 then you can file a joint return if he agrees to it. If you are married at the end of 2019 your filing choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately. Or since you have not lived together if you have dependent children and if he does not agree to a joint return, then you can file as Head of Household.
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
In a nutshell:
- A married person can not be claimed as a dependent on any tax return. Period.
- If you are legally married on Dec 31 of the tax year, your only filing choices are MFJ or MFS. Period.
- If you have a qualifying dependent *and* you and your spouse have not lived together for one single night after Jun 30 of the tax year, then you can file as Head of Household (HoH).
MFJ is the best filing status.
HoH is the next best status.
MFS is the worst filing status.
The "single" filing status is not an available option to you, as being incarcerated is not considered an "extenuating circumstance" that would qualify you for that.
I am also invested into this topic. My main concern is can I file taxes for 2019 MFJ if my husband is incarcerated? He was in jail since July 2019 and didn't earn any income prior to that as well as he didn't collect any unemployment. If I file as MFJ it will still require his signature, how do I go about that?
My daughter was brutally attacked in March of last year by her soon to be ex husband. He stabbed her 18 times 7 in the head. beat her with a bat to her arm and collarbone and one of the knife wounds went in to her lung. She died three times on the way to the hospital they brought her back. He went to jail and was sentence to 40 years. How do I file the taxes since technically they were separated since December 2018 but still married, I don't know how to file for that situation
Your daughter can file either Head of Household, if she has a dependent and otherwise qualifies, or Married Filing Separately.
I am sorry about what happened to your daughter.
Since your daughter is still married she must file with one of the married statuses or Head of Household.
To File Head of Household:
You can learn more about the Head of Household filing status here.
I filed married filing joint while my husband was incarcerated got this refund check. Im being told I shouldn't have filed married filing joint if he is in the federal prision.
Nonsense ... you can file jointly even if your spouse lived on Mars as long as you are legally wed.
technically your spouse is supposed to approve of you filing a joint return.
My husband has been in prison for 4 years and our divorce finalized this Dec 1st. I have 3 questions:
1) what paperwork will I need to file with my taxes for next year?
2) I didn't claim him as a dependent, but filed MFJ. Will I get in any trouble for that with the IRS? (Can't get a straight answer from their website)
3) with the 1st round stimulus check, they sent me his portion since we were married. Will I need to send that back to the IRS to have them send it to him?
My husband has been incarcerated sense May 20 2020 how would I file my taxes I don't have any kids I was going allow someone to do my taxes for me to help me save some money but they don't want to mess it up.
Plus I file for divorce but it has been finalized yet
You can still file a joint return with your husband. Since your divorce is not final yet and you don't have children, you have to file either Married filing jointly or Married filing separately (you can't file as Single). It is generally better to file Married filing jointly. Which status is better - MFJ or MFS?
Your tax return must be signed to be valid. If you are married and file jointly, then you and your spouse must both sign the return. This is done electronically if you e-file your return. If your spouse has a valid power of attorney to attach with the return, then you can sign for him. You can also use IRS Form 2848 to sign for him and be able to e-file. You can also file the joint return by mail. If you file jointly by mail, you can print the return and have him sign it manually and then mail it in to the IRS. If you file separately, you do not need his signature and can e-file without the power of attorney.
I am in this situation as well and doing the power of attorney form 2848. But can you please explain how that works I mean like do I just mail him the form he fills it out in prison and then sends I back to me? And then I can file or what?
all you need is your spouse's consent to file jointly. the POA is only needed if you have to get their tax data from outside sources like a W-2, etc. it is not needed to register with the IRS to get transcripts of their info though having the POA is nice should your spouse ever deny they gave consent. you do not file the POA with the return. you file as if they weren't incarcerated.
You have three options for this scenario:
1) You can mail him an IRS Form 2848 which is the power of attorney form that will delegate to you the ability to file a return for him. Then you would print the tax return and sign it and mail it to the IRS with Form 2848.
2) You can complete the tax return, print the return and take it to him in prison to sign in ink and then file by mail.
3) If you would like to e-file the return, then mail Form 8453 along with the Signed Form 2848 to the IRS within 3 business days after you have received acknowledgement from TurboTax that the IRS has accepted your electronically filed tax return. Form 8453 has a specific box to check if you are attaching a POA indicating that the individual has authority to sign the tax return.
If I am in Colorado what is the address I send the forms too? Forms 8453 and the power of attorney form. ?
You’ll only need to send in Form 8453 if you’re electronically filing the return. According to the Instructions for Form 8453, you’ll send both forms to:
Internal Revenue Service
Attn: Shipping and Receiving, 0254
Receipt and Control Branch
Austin, TX 73344-0254
You should mail Form 8453 to the IRS within 3 business days after you have received acknowledgement that the IRS has accepted your electronically-filed tax return.