Your marital status on the last day of the year determines your status
for the entire year. There are five filing statuses:
If you are unmarried, divorced, or legally separated according to
your state law from your spouse under a separate maintenance decree and
you do not qualify for another filing status, your filing status is single.
Generally, to qualify for head of household status, you must be unmarried
and have provided more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was
the main home for yourself and a qualifying relative for more than one
half of the year. You may also qualify if you are married, but have not
lived with your spouse at any time during the last six months of the tax
year and provided more than half the cost of keeping up a home for you
and your dependent child for more than one half of the year.
If you are married, you and your spouse may file a joint return or
separate returns.
If your spouse died in 1998 and you have not re-married, you may
still file a joint return. This is the last year for which you may file
a joint return with that spouse. If your spouse died during 1996 or 1997,
you may be able to file as a qualifying widow or widower. To do this, you
must meet all four of the following tests:
- You were entitled to file a joint return with your spouse in the
year he or she died. It does not matter whether you actually filed a joint
return,
- You did not remarry before the end of 1998,
- You have a child, stepchild, adopted child, or foster child who
qualified as your dependent for the year; and
- You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home, which
was the main home of that child, for the whole year.
If you are separated and live in a community property state, order
Publication 555, Community
Property. More detailed information on each filing status can be found
in Publication 501, Exemptions,
Standard Deduction, and Filing Information. Publications can be downloaded
from this site, or ordered by calling 1-800-829-3676.
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