Question

Jason and Mary Wells, friends of yours, were married on December 30, 2018. They know you are studying taxes and have sent you an e-mail with a question concerning their filing status. Jason and Mary would each like to file single for tax year 2018. Jason has prepared their taxes both as single and married filing jointly, and he has realized that the couple will get a larger combined refund if they each file single. Jason argues “that it’s not as if we were married for very long in 2018.” Please let us know what you would advise Jason and Mary to do.

Answer 1

In the given situation, the couple is married as on filing their tax filing however their view is that since marriage has happened just few days ago and hence, filing single return would not be inappropriate.

US tax law does not mandatorily requires filing of joint return as couple and spouse have option to file maried returns seperately. Filing joint returns usually provides more in the way of tax relief. Further, couple is entitled to a larger standard deduction if they file jointly with spouse, and the tax brackets for married status are more generous, so the choice bears some thought.

Further, Legally married" is the catch phrase , and it's open to varied interpretation. According to the IRS and tax law, if one is married if they don't have a divorce decree or judgment entered by the court on or before that date—even if they've filed for divorce earlier in the year. Similarly, one and his/her spouse are eligible to file a joint tax return if they're considered legally married. This means that you're married on Dec. 31, the last day of the tax year. You can file a joint 2019 return in April 2020 if you were legally married as on Dec. 31, 2019.

Additionally, filing single returns is both criminal as we as civil offense and tantamounts to cheating and significant monetary penalty in addition to interest can be levied by the authorities. Hence, it is advisable to couple that they should not file return as if they are not married rather they should consider filing seperate married return, if that works out more beneficial to them.