Husband passed in Feb 2021. Last year filed as surviving spouse. Should I closed our joint account this year and opened a new account to file as widow?

[kwhjah1974]

Went into joint turbo tax account that I used last year and it's asking for husbands income information even though he passed in 2021.  Should I delete our old turbo tax account and create a new one now?

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

So sorry for your loss.    If you do not  have dependent children that you are claiming for 2022 in order to file as a Qualified Surviving Spouse, then you will be filing as Single for 2022.  And, yes, if you are filing Single, you will need to start a new account with a new username.   It is too difficult to use an old account that was used for joint returns when your filing status changes to Single.

If you do have dependent children, you would want to continue to use that old account and answer the questions carefully, so that you will get the higher standard deduction that is allowed for filing as QSS.