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Filing Status You must determine your filing status before you can determine whether you must file a tax return, your standard deduction (discussed later), and your tax. You also use your filing sta tus to determine whether you are eligible to claim certain other deductions and credits. There are five filing statuses: Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household, and Qualifying Widow(er) With Dependent Child. If more than one filing status applies to you, choose the one that will give you the lowest tax. Marital Status In general, your filing status depends on whether you are considered unmarried or mar ried. Unmarried persons. You are considered un married for the whole year if, on the last day of your tax year, you are unmarried or legally sep arated from your spouse under a divorce or separate maintenance decree. State law governs whether you are married or legally separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree. Divorced persons. If you are divorced un der a final decree by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year. Divorce and remarriage. If you obtain a divorce for the sole purpose of filing tax returns as unmarried individuals, and at the time of di vorce you intend to and do, in fact, remarry each other in the next tax year, you and your spouse must file as married individuals in both years. Annulled marriages. If you obtain a court decree of annulment, which holds that no valid marriage ever existed, you are considered un married even if you filed joint returns for earlier years. You must file amended returns (Form 1040X) claiming single or head of household status for all tax years that are affected by the annulment and not closed by the statute of limi tations for filing a tax return. Generally, for a credit or refund, you must file Form 1040X within 3 years (including extensions) after the date you filed your original return or within 2 years after the date you paid the tax, whichever is later. If you filed your original tax return early (for example, March 1), your return is consid ered filed on the due date (generally April 15). However, if you had an extension to file (for ex ample, until October 15) but you filed earlier and we received it on July 1, your return is con sidered filed on July 1. Head of household or qualifying widow(er) with dependent child. If you are considered unmarried, you may be able to file as a head of household or as a qualifying widow(er) with a dependent child. See Head of Household and Qualifying Widow(er) With De- pendent Child to see if you qualify. Married persons. If you are considered mar ried, you and your spouse can file a joint return or separate returns. Considered married. You are considered married for the whole year if, on the last day of your tax year, you and your spouse meet any one of the following tests. 1. You are married and living together. 2. You are living together in a common law marriage recognized in the state where you now live or in the state where the com mon law marriage began. 3. You are married and living apart but not le gally separated under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance. 4. You are separated under an interlocutory (not final) decree of divorce. Same-sex marriage. For federal tax pur poses, individuals of the same sex are married if they were lawfully married in a state (or for eign country) whose laws authorize the mar riage of two individuals of the same sex, even if the state (or foreign country) in which they now live does not recognize samesex marriage. The term "spouse" includes an individual mar ried to a person of the same sex if the couple is lawfully married under state (or foreign) law. However, individuals who have entered into a registered domestic partnership, civil union, or other similar relationship that is not called a marriage under state (or foreign) law are not married for federal tax purposes. The word “state” as used here includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. terri tories and possessions. It means any domestic jurisdiction that has the legal authority to sanc tion marriages. The term “foreign country” means any foreign jurisdiction that has the legal authority to sanction marriages. If individuals of the same sex are married, they generally must use the married filing jointly or married filing separately filing status. How ever, if they did not live together during the last 6 months of the year, one or both of them may be able to use the head of household filing sta tus, as explained later. For more details, see Answers to Frequently Asked Questions For Individuals of the Same Sex Who Are Married Under State Law on IRS.gov. Spouse died during the year. If your spouse died during the year, you are consid ered married for the whole year for filing status purposes. If you did not remarry before the end of the tax year, you can file a joint return for yourself and your deceased spouse. For the next 2 years, you may be entitled to the special bene fits described later under Qualifying Widow(er) With Dependent Child. If you remarried before the end of the tax year, you can file a joint return with your new spouse. Your deceased spouse's filing status is married filing separately for that year. Married persons living apart. If you live apart from your spouse and meet certain tests, you may be able to file as head of household even if you are not divorced or legally separa ted. If you qualify to file as head of household instead of as married filing separately, your standard deduction will be higher. Also, your tax may be lower, and you may be able to claim the earned income credit. See Head of Household, later. Single Your filing status is single if you are considered unmarried and you do not qualify for another fil ing status. To determine your marital status, see Marital Status, earlier. Widow(er). Your filing status may be single if you were widowed before January 1, 2014, and did not remarry before the end of 2014. You may, however, be able to use another filing sta tus that will give you a lower tax. See Head of Household and Qualifying Widow(er) With De- pendent Child, later, to see if you qualify. How to file. You can file Form 1040. If you have taxable income of less than $100,000, you may be able to file Form 1040A. If, in addition, you have no dependents, are under 65 and not blind, and meet other requirements, you can file Form 1040EZ. If you file Form 1040A or Form 1040, show your filing status as single by checking the box on line 1. Use the Single col umn of the Tax Table, or Section A of the Tax Computation Worksheet, to figure your tax. Married Filing Jointly You can choose married filing jointly as your fil ing status if you are considered married and both you and your spouse agree to file a joint return. On a joint return, you and your spouse report your combined income and deduct your combined allowable expenses. You can file a joint return even if one of you had no income or deductions. If you and your spouse decide to file a joint return, your tax may be lower than your com bined tax for the other filing statuses. Also, your standard deduction (if you do not itemize de ductions) may be higher, and you may qualify for tax benefits that do not apply to other filing statuses. If you and your spouse each have in- come, you may want to figure your tax both on a joint return and on separate returns (using the filing status of married filing separately). You can choose the method that gives the two of you the lower combined tax. How to file. If you file as married filing jointly, you can use Form 1040. If you and your spouse have taxable income of less than $100,000, you may be able to file Form 1040A. If, in addition, you and your spouse have no dependents, are both under 65 and not blind, and meet other re quirements, you can file Form 1040EZ. If you file Form 1040 or Form 1040A, show this filing status by checking the box on line 2. Use the Married filing jointly column of the Tax Table, or TIP Page 6 Publication 501 (2014)