Married filling separately - but I had no income?

[matt3892]

Hello, my wife has already filed her taxes months ago and put that we would be married filing separately.  I was not planning to file since I was a student and had 0 income, but now have no option to apply for the stimulus check.  Every non-filer form only has options to file as Single or Married-filing jointly and I can't find any solution.  Is there a way I could file with 0 income and still be eligible for the stimulus program?

[Texas Roger]

Use the single option to register for the stimulus payment since there is no married filing separately option. 

[matt3892]

I tried that shortly after posting and received the following in an email shortly after:

For the filing status selected in the return, the Primary SSN in the Return Header must not be the same as Spouse SSN on another return with filing status Married filing separately.

[Texas Roger]

Are you sure your spouse did not file a Married Filing Jointly tax return? That would be the error message if this is what happened.

[matt3892]

Nope, even the last word in the email confirms that she did file as married filing separately

[Texas Roger]

This may be a flaw with the IRS program. The IRS requires that the spouse's social security number be entered on a Married Filing Separately tax return.  You may have to go ahead and file a Married Filing Separately tax return for yourself. 

[Mypupbarks]

I’m in the same boat. I am not required to file a tax return. When I try to complete the stimulus only return, it won’t let me file as married filing separately and rejects me if I put single as TurboTax directed me to do since my spouse already filed married filing separately.  They also told me I couldn’t file a regular return because I do not have income.

[Texas Roger]

Why are you not filing Married Filing Jointly? Both spouses are not required to have income to file a joint return. It is almost always better for filers to file one joint tax return than to file two married filing separately returns. 

[matt3892]

Keywords: "almost always".  We are asking this question because we are currently in this situation, whatever the reason may be.  It's not like when filing taxes we said, "Hey, I bet there's gonna be an unprecedented worldwide pandemic in a couple months and the IRS will roll out a flawed system that doesn't account for all situations. Oh well, let's file separately for S and G's."

[kumud]

Had exactly the same problem.   I'm going to try and file a complete "Married Filing Separately" return with $1 income ...