Tax and the Single Person

Most of the time it is the state law and not the federal law that determines the marriage status of a US person. And most of the time, IRS is concerned with your marital status for the particular tax year only.

Your filing status is single if, on the last day of the tax year, you are unmarried or legally separated and you do not qualify for another filing status.

Some Tax Situations of interest to single people:

Unmarried person

To be considered unmarried for the whole year, your status should be one of these two on the last day of your tax year:

1.unmarried

OR

2.legally separated from your spouse

under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.

Again, state law governs whether you are married or legally separated. For tax purposes, it is your status on the last day of the year that counts.

Annulled marriage

If you obtained a court decree of annulment that decides that no valid marriage ever existed, you are considered unmarried even if you filed joint returns for previous years.

Then you can file Form 1040X, Amended Income Tax Return, claiming single or head of household status for each tax year affected by the annulment .

But, you should remember that the rules of statute of limitationsgenerally limit such filing to 3 years after your original return was filed.

Head of household

If you were single and had a qualified dependent, you may be able to file as a head of household if you satisfy the following requirements.

1. You were unmarried or "considered unmarried" on the last day of the year.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
3. A "qualifying person" lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences).

However, if the "qualifying person" is your dependent parent, there are some concessions in the third requirement.

Head of household - special consideration for "unmarried " taxpayers taking care of their parents

If your qualifying person was your father or mother, you may be eligible to file as head of household with some relaxation in the "should be living with you in the home" requirement.

You can claim the head of household status even if that parent did not live with you.
Again, you must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the entire year for your father or mother.

Another concession is this:
You may be considered to have kept up a main home for your father or mother if you paid more than half the cost of keeping your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly.

Some Tax Situations of interest to the Widowed Single:

Death of spouse during the year 2010

If your spouse died during the year and you file a joint return for yourself, you generally can claim your spouse's exemption.
If you file a separate return for the year, you may be able to claim your spouse's exemption.

Of course, if you remarried during the year, you cannot a take an exemption for your deceased spouse, though you may be claimed as a dependent exemption in that person's final return.

Let us be very clear about the terminology. Words like "exemption" "deduction" and "credit" have definite and separate meanings in the tax domain and need not always be interchangeable. So when the taxman says spouse's "exemption" can be claimed, that doesn't mean that all the spouse's other "deductions" or "credits" can be automatically claimed.

Widow/widower

Your filing status may be single if you were widowed before January 1, 2010, and did not remarry before the end of 2010.

However, you might be able to use another filing status that will give you a lower tax. For example.

Head of the household (described above)
OR
Qualifying widower with a dependent child (described below)

Qualifying widow or widower with dependent child

You are eligible to file your return as a qualifying widow or widower with dependent child if you meet all of the following:

• You were entitled to file a joint return with your spouse for the year your spouse died. But it does not matter whether you actually filed a joint return or not. Only that you were eligible for a joint return in the normal course if the unfortunate event had not happened.
• Your spouse died in 2008 or 2009 and you did not remarry before the end of 2010.
• You have a child or stepchild for whom you can claim an exemption. But, This does not include a foster child.
• This child lived in your home all year, except for temporary absences.
(Special exceptions exist for for a child who was born or died during the year, and for a kidnapped child.)
• You paid more than half the cost of keeping up that home for the year.

Some Situations of Interest to The Divorced Single:

Divorced persons

If you are divorced under a final decree by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year.

Claiming exemptions of the divorced or separated spouse

If you obtained a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance by the end of the year, you cannot take your former spouse's exemption.
This rule remains even if you provided all of your former spouse's support.

Divorce and remarriage

Some years ago, married people were being too frequently advised to indulge in this temporary "estrangement drama" to fool the IRS. But that is no longer possible.

If you get a divorce in one year which was for the sole purpose of filing tax returns as unmarried individuals, and at the time of divorce you intended to and REMARRIED each other in the following tax year, both spouses have to file as married individuals.

PLEASE NOTE: This article touches only the basic aspects of the subject, hence does not deal with all the tax situations for the single taxpayer. The latest resources provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should be
consulted for the latest authoritative details. Some of the situations like divorce are too complex and may need consultation with a legal expert.