I got married this year. My wife doesn't work and will not be filing any taxes this year. Should I file as married filing jointly or separately?

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

If you were legally married on or before 12/31/2014 then you can only file as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.  In most cases you would want to file as MFJ even if one spouse has little of no income.  You receive the highest standard deduction of $12,400 and you each receive a personal exemption of $3,950.

If you were married in 2015, then you would file as Single on your tax year 2014 return.  You may be able to claim your wife as a dependent under the Qualifying Relative rules if she meets the requirements in 2014.

Qualifying Relative -

1. The person cannot be your qualifying child or the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. A child is not the qualifying child of any other taxpayer if the child's parent (or any other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) is not required to file an income tax return or files an income tax return only to get a refund on income tax withheld.

2. The person either (a) must be related to you or (b) must live with you all year as a member of your household. 

3. The person's gross income for the year must be less than $3,950 (social security does not count) in 2014

4. You must provide more than half of the person's total support for the year.

5. The person must be a U.S. citizen or a U.S., Canada, or Mexico resident for some part of the year.

6. The person must not file a joint return with their spouse.

[andrzej-stankevi]

You said if i file MFJ i have standard deduction of $12,400 and each of us have a personal exemption of $3,950. Do i have same deductions if my wife works? Or it doesn't matter if she works or not?

[jerry2000]

You are asking about an answer from 2 years ago. Now the standard deduction is $12,600 and the personal exemption is $4,050 and it doesn't matter whether your wife works or not. When you file as Married Filing Jointly, there is no requirement for both of you to have income.

[andrzej-stankevi]

Does it mean that i don't have any additional deductions because of a fact that my wife doesn't work?

[randy-smith117]

It sounds like I need to file Married Filing Separately due to the fact my spouse is not an U.S Citizen (yet).

[jerry2000]

Each year you can choose to file as Married Filing Separately. However, that may not provide the benefit that you expect, and you will almost always end up paying more in tax than if you file jointly.
The Married Filing Separately filing status is very different than the Single filing status. There are a number of severe restrictions on deductions and credits, and on the amount of IRA contributions that you can deduct, especially if you live together with your spouse.
You can not take the EIC,
You can not take the credit for Child and Dependent Care, in most cases,
You can not take the Education credits/deductions, and there are many other restrictions.
 If either of you receive Social Security benefits and you live with your spouse, more of the SS benefit will be taxable, and the person receiving it will have to include the SS benefit in their gross income when determining whether they have to file. If one of you itemizes deductions, the other must also itemize even if they have nothing to itemize.

Before you decide, you should carefully read the restrictions that go with MFS in  IRS Pub. 501, at this link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

You should carefully read the limits on IRA deductions in IRS Pub. 590 at this link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf


In addition, if you live in a Community Property state, there are special rules you must follow for reporting income and expense. For further information on that, see IRS Pub. 555, at this link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p555.pdf