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Spouse away from home. If your spouse is away from home, you should prepare the re- turn, sign it, and send it to your spouse to sign so it can be filed on time. Injury or disease prevents signing. If your spouse can't sign because of injury or dis- ease and tells you to sign for them, you can sign your spouse's name in the proper space on the return followed by the words “By (your name), Spouse.” Be sure to sign in the space provided for your signature. Attach a dated statement, signed by you, to the return. The statement should include the form number of the return you are filing, the tax year, and the reason your spouse can't sign, and it should state that your spouse has agreed to your sign- ing for them. Signing as guardian of spouse. If you are the guardian of your spouse who is mentally in- competent, you can sign the return for your spouse as guardian. Spouse in combat zone. You can sign a joint return for your spouse if your spouse can't sign because they are serving in a combat zone (such as the Persian Gulf area, Serbia, Monte- negro, Albania, or Afghanistan), even if you don't have a power of attorney or other state- ment. Attach a signed statement to your return explaining that your spouse is serving in a com- bat zone. For more information on special tax rules for persons who are serving in a combat zone, or who are in missing status as a result of serving in a combat zone, see Pub. 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide. Power of attorney (POA). In order for you to sign a return for your spouse in any of these cases, you must attach to the return a POA that authorizes you to sign for your spouse. You can use a POA that states that you have been gran- ted authority to sign the return, or you can use Form 2848. Part I of Form 2848 must state that you are granted authority to sign the return. Nonresident alien or dual-status alien. Gen- erally, a married couple can't file a joint return if either one is a nonresident alien at any time during the tax year. However, if one spouse was a nonresident alien or dual-status alien who was married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien at the end of the year, the spouses can choose to file a joint return. If you do file a joint return, you and your spouse are both treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year. See chap- ter 1 of Pub. 519. Married Filing Separately You can choose married filing separately as your filing status if you are married. This filing status may benefit you if you want to be respon- sible only for your own tax or if it results in less tax than filing a joint return. If you and your spouse don't agree to file a joint return, you must use this filing status un- less you qualify for head of household status, discussed later. You may be able to choose head of house- hold filing status if you are considered unmar- ried because you live apart from your spouse and meet certain tests (explained later under Head of Household). This can apply to you 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 tax may be lower, you may be able to claim certain tax benefits, and your standard deduction will be higher. The head of household filing status allows you to choose the standard deduction even if your spouse chooses to itemize deduc- tions. See Head of Household, later, for more information. You will generally pay more combined tax on separate returns than you would on a joint return for the reasons listed under Special Rules, later. However, unless you are required to file separately, you should figure your tax both ways (on a joint return and on separate returns). This way, you can make sure you are using the filing status that results in the lowest combined tax. When figuring the combined tax of a married couple, you may want to consider state taxes as well as federal taxes. How to file. If you file a separate return, you generally report only your own income, credits, and deductions. Select this filing status by checking the “Married filing separately” box on the Filing Sta- tus line at the top of Form 1040 or 1040-SR. En- ter your spouse's full name in the entry space at the bottom of the Filing Status section and enter your spouse's SSN or ITIN in the space for spouse's SSN on Form 1040 or 1040-SR. If your spouse doesn't have and isn't required to have an SSN or ITIN, enter “NRA” in the entry space below the filing status checkboxes. For electronic filing, enter the spouse's name or “NRA” if the spouse doesn't have an SSN or ITIN in the entry space below the filing status checkboxes. Use the Married filing separately column of the Tax Table, or Section C of the Tax Computation Worksheet, to figure your tax. Special Rules If you choose married filing separately as your filing status, the following special rules apply. Because of these special rules, you usually pay more tax on a separate return than if you use another filing status you qualify for. 1. Your tax rate is generally higher than on a joint return. 2. Your exemption amount for figuring the al- ternative minimum tax is half that allowed on a joint return. 3. You can't take the credit for child and de- pendent care expenses in most cases, and the amount you can exclude from in- come under an employer's dependent care assistance program is limited to $2,500 (instead of $5,000 on a joint re- turn). However, if you are legally separa- ted or living apart from your spouse, you may be able to file a separate return and still take the credit. See What’s Your Filing Status? in Pub. 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses, for more information. 4. You can't take the earned income credit unless you have a qualifying child and meet certain other requirements. TIP 5. You can't take the exclusion or credit for adoption expenses in most cases. 6. You can't take the education credits (the American opportunity credit and lifetime learning credit), or the deduction for stu- dent loan interest. 7. You can't exclude any interest income from qualified U.S. savings bonds you used for higher education expenses. 8. If you lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year: a. You can't claim the credit for the eld- erly or the disabled, and b. You must include in income a greater percentage (up to 85%) of any social security or equivalent railroad retire- ment benefits you received. 9. The following credits and deductions are reduced at income levels half those for a joint return. a. The child tax credit and the credit for other dependents. b. The retirement savings contributions credit. 10. Your capital loss deduction limit is $1,500 (instead of $3,000 on a joint return). 11. If your spouse itemizes deductions, you can't claim the standard deduction. If you can claim the standard deduction, your basic standard deduction is half the amount allowed on a joint return. There are special rules that allow a separated spouse to claim the earned income credit under certain circum- stances. See the line 27 instructions in the In- structions for Form 1040 and Schedule EIC (Form 1040) to see if you meet the qualifica- tions to claim the earned income credit even though you are married filing a separate return. Adjusted gross income (AGI) limits. If your AGI on a separate return is lower than it would have been on a joint return, you may be able to deduct a larger amount for certain deductions that are limited by AGI, such as medical expen- ses. Individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). You may not be able to deduct all or part of your contributions to a traditional IRA if you or your spouse was covered by an employee retire- ment plan at work during the year. Your deduc- tion is reduced or eliminated if your income is more than a certain amount. This amount is much lower for married individuals who file sep- arately and lived together at any time during the year. For more information, see How Much Can You Deduct? in chapter 1 of Pub. 590-A. Rental activity losses. If you actively partici- pated in a passive rental real estate activity that produced a loss, you can generally deduct the loss from your nonpassive income up to $25,000. This is called a special allowance. However, married persons filing separate re- turns who lived together at any time during the year can't claim this special allowance. Married persons filing separate returns who lived apart TIP Publication 501 (2022) Page 7