|
|
IRS Tax Filing Statuses
A tax filer reports one status to the IRS for the tax year. There are several different tax filing statuses when filing taxes with the IRS. These statuses are as follows:
| Filing Status | Definition |
| Single | A person who is unmarried, legally separated, or divorced (as defined by state law) and files a tax return alone. |
| Married Filing Jointly | A person who is legally married, whether living with or apart from his/her spouse, and files taxes together with his/her spouse. |
| Married Filing Separately | A person who is legally married, whether living with or apart from his/her spouse, and files taxes separately from his/her spouse. |
| Head of Household | A person who is unmarried or considered unmarried for tax purposes and pays more than half of the costs of keeping up the home for a Qualifying Child and/or Qualifying Relative whom he/she claims as a dependent. |
| Qualifying Widow(er) with dependent child | A person, whose spouse passed away within the two previous tax years, has a child or step- child who meets the definition of a Qualifying Child, and pays more than half the cost of keeping up the home for that child. |
Note: Effective 1/1/2014, same-sex spouses must be treated the same as opposite-sex spouses for the purposes of MAGI Medi-Cal eligibility. Any use of the term spouse refers to both same- and opposite-sex spouses.
Related Topics
Parent-Child and Stepparent Rules
Joint Custody and Determining Custodial Parent Rules