Married filing separately

[2zzredhead]

I guess i should have been more specific with my last question. My husbands stroke put him in the arrears with child support snd his ex wife is NOT a nice, understanding person. I MUST file ‘married filing separately’ because I am not allowing her to take MY refund as well as his. I work my fingers to the bone all year at age 52 & she’s not touching it no matter how many fees are stacked against me. 

[xmasbaby0]

If you were legally married at the end of 2024 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 $29,200 (+ $1550 for each spouse 65 or older)  for 2024. 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 since with online, you get one return per fee.

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...

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

You received two replies to your other post---and both of those replies explained to you why you cannot file as Head of Household.    If you have lived with your spouse for at least the last six months of 2024, you cannot file as HOH.   Your choices are to file MFJ or MFS.   One thing you might want to consider doing is to file MFJ and also include the "injured spouse" form so that you can still receive the refund that can be attributed to your own income.

INJURED SPOUSE

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1910698-how-do-i-file-form-8379-injured-spouse-allocation

To use Form 8379 to report Injured Spouse:  Go to

Federal>Other Tax Situations>Other Tax Forms

On Miscellaneous tax forms, click start or update for Report an Innocent or Injured Spouse