Frequently Asked Questions

The American Opportunity or Lifetime Learning credits are not available for married filing separate returns.
For MFS you must have lived apart from your spouse for the last 6 months of the year to take advantage of the dependent care, earned income, elderly credits and the $25,000 rental loss allowance.
Also Social Security will be 85% taxable.

If a joint return was originally filed, you may not change to married-filing separate returns once the due date of the returns has passed.
If married-filing separate returns were originally filed, you have three years from the due date (without extensions) to switch to filing a joint return.

You are not eligible to choose head of household filing status if the qualifying person is your dependent because a multiple support agreement Form 2120 was filed.

When both spouses are income earners, the tax they pay when they file a joint return is usually greater than the tax they would pay separately if they were still single. This is referred to as the marriage penalty. When you are married you cannot choose to file as single. You must file either jointly with your spouse, or file "married, filing separately". Filing separately from your spouse is usually even more costly.

No. If you are married on the last day of the year, you must file either married filing jointly or married filing separately. You are not allowed to file as a single or Head of Household.