Can my spouse file as head of household so I can file married filling separately?

[xmasbaby0]

She files married filing separately.     And if you are filing HOH you do not have to enter anything about her on your own return----so what she does is in the category of not your problem.

[Opus 17]

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@natestaff26 wrote:

Married living in 2 different states for more than a year.  Dependants live with me. She has a job and student loans interest but we don't talk so she's not going to give me numbers.  Turbo tax is telling me to file HOH but what does she file?.   

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In general, if you lived apart, and you have custody of at least one qualifying dependent, you can file as head of household.  You don't need to provide any information about your spouse.  As you are legally married, and if your spouse does not have a qualifying person to claim for HOH status, they would file as married filing separately. 

If you were married in a community property state, however, professional advice might be recommended.  There are some tricky aspects to filing separate returns when you have community property (including the question of whether you have community income after your separation, which depends on state law).

[fflores3]

If a married but separated couple aren't living together, one spouse filing Head of Household (meets criteria), TurboTax is asking (insisting) she provide estranged spouse's name, SS# and, and birthday - info she hasn't retained.  Is this necessary?  TT won't get past error check without the info. 

[Opus 17]

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@fflores3 wrote:

If a married but separated couple aren't living together, one spouse filing Head of Household (meets criteria), TurboTax is asking (insisting) she provide estranged spouse's name, SS# and, and birthday - info she hasn't retained.  Is this necessary?  TT won't get past error check without the info. 

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Go back to the personal interview and check again.  Turbotax should not ask for the name and SSN of the spouse if you are filing HOH.  The IRS does not require it.  You might be listed as MFS by mistake. 

[Allysonspielman]

We recently got married. We were both Head of Household. Do we change the W4 to married for both of us or just the highest earner? He makes $100k and I make $70k. I don’t want us to have a huge tax bill next year, but I also don’t want our take -home pay to decrease radically.

[DoninGA]

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@Allysonspielman  wrote:

We recently got married. We were both Head of Household. Do we change the W4 to married for both of us or just the highest earner? He makes $100k and I make $70k. I don’t want us to have a huge tax bill next year, but I also don’t want our take -home pay to decrease radically.

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If you are legally married and living together at any time in the last six months of the year, you can only file your tax return as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.

Use this IRS website for the W-4 withholding estimator - https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

[Opus 17]

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@Allysonspielman  wrote:

We recently got married. We were both Head of Household. Do we change the W4 to married for both of us or just the highest earner? He makes $100k and I make $70k. I don’t want us to have a huge tax bill next year, but I also don’t want our take -home pay to decrease radically.

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Use the IRS web site, or get the W-4 and use all the instructions and worksheets.  You will both need to file new W-4s, but you do the calculation once and apply that answer to both new forms.

Because you will file married for the entire year, but were withheld as HOH for the beginning of the year, you were likely under-withheld for the first part of the year, since the taxes for two parents each filing HOH will be slightly lower than a couple filing MFJ.  Also, you may have gotten the enhanced child tax credit or enhanced dependent care credit in 2021 that is going back to normal for 2022.   If you use the IRS web site to determine your withholding for the rest of 2022, you will want to run it again at the beginning of 2023 to reset your withholding. 

[Eloisr]

Can one spouse claim married filing separate and the other file head of household 

[Mike9241]

You should have started your own thread!!!! However, to answer your question, the answer is yes. If the one wanting to file as HOH has lived apart from their spouse for the last six months of a calendar year and paid more than 1/2 the cost of keeping up a home for themself and his/her child who lived with the taxpayer for more than six months during that calendar year. 

six months means the child spent 183 or more nights with the taxpayer

there are other conditions to file as HOH

1) child can not be claimable solely because of multiple support agreement

2) taxpayer can not be a nonresident alien any time during the year

3) child can not be married and filing jointly with their spouse unless there is no tax liability and merely filing jointly to facilitate a refund of taxes withheld or paid estimates. 

[Opus 17]

"Can one spouse claim married filing separate and the other file head of household "

Yes, but ONLY if the spouses have lived apart for the entire last 6 months of the year (from July 1 to the end of the year).   If you live together for even one day during that time, your choices are limited to married filing jointly, or married filing separately.

Head of household is only really intended for single parents, meaning you are unmarried, or have a long-term separation from your spouse.  HOH does not mean "head of the family."