Learn about Different Tax Return Filing Statuses

Art: My name is Art Auerbach, I’m a tax director with Goodman and Company, I’ve been preparing tax returns for over 40 years. We’re gonna get to step two and that’s to determine what your filing status is.
Male: What different tax return filing statuses are there?
Art: There are various filing statuses. Your filing status for federal and most state purposes is determined as of December 31st, so you need to look at your status on December 31. The statuses are single, married filing jointly, if you are married. I must qualify this however, because from a federal point of view, the congress years ago passed the bill called the Defensive Marriage Act. So as far as federal taxes are concerned, marriage means between a male and a female. There are some states where you might be watching this video where they have recognized same sex marriages, that will only apply for the state return but does not apply to the federal return. So for federal purposes, you will still be two single individuals, even though in a same sex union, the state might recognize you as married filing jointly or as a couple. Then if you are still married on 12-31, and there is no divorce decree or decree of separation, then your only choice is married filing jointly or married filing separately. And those all bring different tax rates. Now if you choose to file separately, or if you are a single parent who has a dependent child or a dependent living in their household, then you may be able to choose head of household status. There is one more separate, generally there are five filing statuses, they are listed on the return right under the name and address, so if you’re looking to locate this, just look at the five boxes under name and address. The fifth status would be for someone who unfortunately had a spouse passed away. If your spouse passes away during the year, you can still file jointly for that year, and if there is a dependent child still living with the survivor, you can use married filing jointly for two more years after the year in which the spouse dies. Now the reason that this is important in choice of filing status is single is generally the higher rates, married filing jointly are the cheaper rates, and somewhere in between are head of household, or married filing separately. So choice of filing status, when you are entering this information in a program, if you’re doing it yourself, or even if I was doing it as a paid professional, we use a tax program, that alerts the program as to which rate table is going to be use.


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