Filing Status Calculator

The law looks at your marriage on the last day of the year, and that answer applies to the whole year (IRC §7703(a)(1)). A final decree of divorce, or a decree of separate maintenance, makes you unmarried (IRC §7703(a)(2)). Living apart without a decree, or under a temporary (interlocutory) decree, leaves you married.

• Unmarried: you file as single, unless you qualify as head of household or qualifying surviving spouse, which then replace single (IRC §1(c)).
• Married: you and your spouse can file one joint return if you both agree (IRC §6013(a); §1(a)(1)), or each file a separate return (IRC §1(d)). A married person who lives apart from their spouse may qualify as head of household (see below).
• Spouse died during the year: the law treats you as married for the whole year, so you can file jointly with your spouse who died, unless you remarry by the end of the year (IRC §6013(a)(2); Pub. 501 (2025), Spouse died during the year).

A joint return is not allowed if either spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year, unless you both choose U.S. resident treatment for the whole year (IRC §6013(a)(1), (g), (h)).

The law treats a married person as unmarried for head of household status when all four of these are true (IRC §7703(b); §2(c)).

1. You file a separate return.
2. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year.
3. Your spouse did not live in your home at any time during the last 6 months of the year. A spouse away only temporarily still counts as living there.
4. Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild, or foster child for more than half the year, and you can claim the child as a dependent. You still meet this test if you cannot claim the child only because you released the claim to the other parent (IRC §152(e)).

A spouse who was a nonresident alien at any time during the year also leaves you considered unmarried for this status, unless you chose to treat your spouse as a U.S. resident (IRC §2(b)(2)(B), §6013(g), (h); Pub. 501 (2025), Nonresident alien spouse). Your spouse cannot be the person who qualifies you.

You can file as head of household when you are unmarried or considered unmarried on December 31, you paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year, and a qualifying person meets one of these three routes (IRC §2(b)(1); Pub. 501 (2025), Table 4).

1. Your qualifying child who lived with you for more than half the year. The law tests the child without the release rules for divorced or separated parents, so the parent the child lives with keeps this status even after releasing the dependency claim, and the other parent cannot get it from the release (IRC §2(b)(1)(A)(i)). A child who was married on December 31 counts only if the child did not file a joint return and passes the citizen or resident test (IRC §2(b)(1)(A)(i)). A married child still counts if the only reason you can’t claim the child is that someone else can claim you (Pub. 501 (2025), Table 4, note 3).
2. Another relative who is your dependent and lived with you for more than half the year, such as a grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle (IRC §2(b)(1)(A)(ii)). A person who is your dependent only because they lived with you all year as a member of your household, such as a friend, does not count (IRC §2(b)(3)(B)(i)).
3. Your father or mother, if you can claim your parent as a dependent and you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your parent’s main home for the year. Your parent does not have to live with you (IRC §2(b)(1)(B)).

A person you can claim only through a multiple-support agreement (a signed Form 2120 that lets one of several people who together paid for someone’s support claim that person) never qualifies you (IRC §2(b)(3)(B)(ii)). You cannot file as head of household if you were a nonresident alien at any time during the year (IRC §2(b)(3)(A)), or if you qualify as a qualifying surviving spouse, which the law puts first (IRC §2(b)(1)). One person can qualify only one taxpayer for this status (Pub. 501 (2025), Table 4, note 1). If someone else could also claim the same child, the tie-breaker decides who may.

For the two years after the year your spouse died, you can use the joint return tax rates on your own return when every one of these is true (IRC §2(a); §1(a)(2); Pub. 501 (2025), Qualifying Surviving Spouse). In the year of death itself, you can file jointly instead.

1. Your spouse died in one of the two years before this one, and you did not remarry before the end of this year.
2. You and your spouse could have filed a joint return for the year of death, whether or not you did.
3. Your son, daughter, stepson, or stepdaughter lived in your home all year. An adopted child counts; a foster child does not. You must be able to claim the child as a dependent, or could claim the child except that the child’s gross income was too high, the child filed a joint return, or someone else can claim you as a dependent. Unlike head of household, you lose this status if you released the dependency claim for the child to the other parent (IRC §2(a)(1)(B)(ii); compare §2(b)(1)(A)(i)).
4. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the year.

After the two years end, you may qualify as head of household.