How to Change Tax Filing Status to Married

Your tax filing status is determined by the your marital status on the last day of the year for which you are filing taxes. This status greatly affects your income tax withholding, amount of standard deduction and your eligibility to claim certain tax deductions and credits.

1. Decide which tax filing status to use for the year. If you are legally married at any point during the calendar year, then you qualify as married for the entire tax year. However, married people can have a filing status of either Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) or Married Filing Separately (MFS). MFJ status allows spouses to combine income, exemptions, and allowable deductions on one tax return. That is with the agreement and return signature from both spouses to file a joint tax return.  The good thing about MFJ status is that it has more tax benefits and usually results in lower taxes. MFS status allows spouses to have separate tax liabilities, but have the least beneficial tax treatment. The typical cases in which married people agrees  to file their tax returns separately is when one spouse doesn’t agree with the other about taxes, one spouse is self-employed and the other does not want to be responsible for any tax problems, or when spouses are separated but not yet divorced.  


2. Both spouses must sign the new 1040 form and check the box with Married Filing Jointly upon agreement. All necessary information such as income, expenses and deductions for both spouses must be included in the same form.


3. For spouses who are in the middle of separation or divorce, both must sign the new 1040 form and check the box with Married Filing Separately upon agreement. Only one spouse can claim dependent children and both spouses must have their own itemized deduction in the form.