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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. File amended returns (Form(s) 1040-X) claiming single or head of household status for all tax years that are affected by the annulment and not closed by the statute of limitations for filing a tax return. Generally, for a credit or re- fund, you must file Form(s) 1040-X 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 exam- ple, March 1), your return is considered filed on the due date (generally April 15). However, if you had an extension to file (for example, until October 15) but you filed earlier and we re- ceived it on July 1, your return is considered filed on July 1. Head of household or qualifying surviv- ing spouse. If you are considered unmarried, you may be able to file as head of household or as a qualifying surviving spouse. See Head of Household and Qualifying Surviving Spouse, later, 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. 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 didn't 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 Surviving Spouse. 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 aren't divorced or legally separated. If you qualify to file as head of household in- stead of as married filing separately, your standard deduction will be higher and your tax may be lower. See Head of Household, later. Single Your filing status is single if you are considered unmarried and you don't qualify for another fil- ing status. To determine your marital status, see Marital Status, earlier. Spouse died before January 1, 2022. Your filing status may be single if your spouse died before January 1, 2022, and you didn't remarry before the end of 2022. You may, however, be able to use another filing status that will give you a lower tax. See Head of Household and Qualifying Surviving Spouse, later, to see if you qualify. On Form 1040 or 1040-SR, show your filing status as single by checking the “Single” box on the Filing Status line at the top of the form. Use the Single column of the Tax Table, or Sec- tion 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 don't itemize deduc- tions) may be higher, and you may qualify for tax benefits that don't apply to other filing sta- tuses. On Form 1040 or 1040-SR, show your filing status as married filing jointly by checking the “Married filing jointly” box on the Filing Status line at top of the form. Use the Married filing jointly column of the Tax Table, or Section B of the Tax Computation Worksheet, to figure your tax. 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 un- less you are required to file separately. Spouse died. If your spouse died during the year, you are considered married for the whole year and can choose married filing jointly as your filing status. See Spouse died during the year under Married persons, earlier. If your spouse died in 2023 before filing a 2022 return, you can choose married filing jointly as your filing status on your 2022 return. 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 and TIP you can't choose married filing jointly as your fil- ing status. Filing a Joint Return Both you and your spouse must include all of your income and deductions on your joint re- turn. Accounting period. Both of you must use the same accounting period, but you can use differ- ent accounting methods. Joint responsibility. Both of you may be held responsible, jointly and individually, for the tax and any interest or penalty due on your joint re- turn. This means that if one spouse doesn't pay the tax due, the other may have to. Or, if one spouse doesn't report the correct tax, both spouses may be responsible for any additional taxes assessed by the IRS. One spouse may be held responsible for all the tax due even if all the income was earned by the other spouse. You may want to file separately if: • You believe your spouse isn't reporting all of their income, or • You don't want to be responsible for any taxes due if your spouse doesn't have enough tax withheld or doesn't pay enough estimated tax. Divorced taxpayer. You may be held jointly and individually responsible for any tax, interest, and penalties due on a joint return filed before your divorce. This responsibility may ap- ply even if your divorce decree states that your former spouse will be responsible for any amounts due on previously filed joint returns. Relief from joint responsibility. In some cases, one spouse may be relieved of joint re- sponsibility for tax, interest, and penalties on a joint return for items of the other spouse that were incorrectly reported on the joint return. You can ask for relief no matter how small the liability. There are three types of relief available. 1. Innocent spouse relief. 2. Separation of liability (available only to joint filers whose spouse has died, or who are divorced, who are legally separated, or who haven't lived together for the 12 months ending on the date the election for this relief is filed). 3. Equitable relief. You must file Form 8857, Request for Inno- cent Spouse Relief, to request relief from joint responsibility. Pub. 971 explains the kinds of re- lief and who may qualify for them. Signing a joint return. For a return to be con- sidered a joint return, both spouses must gener- ally sign the return. Spouse died before signing. If your spouse died before signing the return, the exec- utor or administrator must sign the return for your spouse. If neither you nor anyone else has been appointed as executor or administrator, you can sign the return for your spouse and en- ter “Filing as surviving spouse” in the area where you sign the return. Page 6 Publication 501 (2022)