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If you are married and living with your spouse, you must file as married filing jointly or married filing separately. You cannot choose to file as single or head of household. However, if you were separated from your spouse on December 31, 2018 by a separate maintenance decree, you may choose to file as single.

To put it even more bluntly, if you file as single when you're married under the IRS definition of the term, you're committing a crime with penalties that can range as high as a $250,000 fine and three years in jail.

Filing status The IRS considers you married for the entire tax year when you have no separation maintenance decree by the final day of the year. If you are married by IRS standards, you can only choose "married filing jointly" or "married filing separately" status. You cannot file as "single" or "head of household."

The IRS strongly encourages most couples to file joint tax returns by extending several tax breaks to those who file together. In the vast majority of cases, it's best for married couples to file jointly, but there may be a few instances when it's better to submit separate returns.

Single vs. Married: The Filing Options In order to use the single filing status, you need to be unmarried, legally separated and/or divorced on the last day of the tax year (Dec. 31). To qualify as married in the eyes of the IRS you need to get legally married on or before the last day of the tax year.

In most cases, the IRS requires couples to be legally married to file a joint tax return. However, the IRS also allows couples who aren't legally married but are considered married by common law to also file jointly. As of publication, only 10 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, recognize common law marriages.

Filing separately may be beneficial if you need to separate your tax liability from your spouse's, or if one spouse has a significant itemized deduction. Filing separately can disqualify or limit your use of potentially valuable tax breaks, but you should consider both ways to see which way will save you more in taxes.

Income requirements for married filing separately That's because the IRS requires people with a married-filing-separately status to file a return if their gross income was at least $5, regardless of age.

To put it even more bluntly, if you file as single when you're married under the IRS definition of the term, you're committing a crime with penalties that can range as high as a $250,000 fine and three years in jail.

Filing status The IRS considers you married for the entire tax year when you have no separation maintenance decree by the final day of the year. If you are married by IRS standards, you can only choose "married filing jointly" or "married filing separately" status. You cannot file as "single" or "head of household."

Advantages of Filing Separate Returns By using the Married Filing Separately filing status, you will keep your own tax liability separate from your spouse's tax liability. When you file a joint return, you will each be responsible for your combined tax bill (if either of you owes taxes).

The W-4 status and the filing status on your tax return are not related. On your tax return just file with the proper status, Married Filing Jointly, since you are legally married. The Single status on a W-4 would mean your taxes are withheld at the higher single rate versus the Married rate.

If you don't neatly fit into only one filing category, the IRS gives you a break you're allowed to file under the marital status that results in paying a lower tax. Regardless of your marital status during most of the tax year, you must file your return based on whether you were single or married on Dec. 31.

You're typically safe claiming just one allowance if you're single and have only one job. A married couple qualifies for a greater number of allowances than a single person, one for each spouse, so withholding is less.

Claiming two just means that less is withheld from each paycheck and your refund will be less at the end of the year (or you may owe the IRS). The general rule is that the more allowances you claim, the less withholding you'll have taken out of your paycheck.