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| You may be eligible to file as Head of Household even if the child who is your qualifying person has been kidnapped. You can claim Head of Household filing status if the child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or the child's family. Also in the year of kidnapping, the child must have lived with you for more than half of the year before the kidnapping. Additionally, you must have met the requirements or would have met the Head of Household filing status requirements if the child had not been kidnapped. |
| You may be eligible to file as Head of Household if the individual who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies during the year. You are considered to have provided more than half of the cost of keeping up a home for this individual if you provided more than half the support for the part of the year he or she was alive or half the cost of keeping up the home he she lived in. |
| You standard deduction is zero if you are filing Married Filing Separately and your spouse itemizes her deductions. For example, Marvyn is married to Clara and for 2014, due to some marital problems, they filed married filing separate. Clara will itemize her deductions of $11,000 because she had qualifying car expenses. Marvyn wants to use the standard deduction on his tax return, because his total itemized deductions amount is only $4,100 for 2014 and it is less than the standard deduction amount. Since Clara will itemize her deductions, Marvyn also has to itemize his deductions and use the $4,100 amount. |
| The standard deduction for a dependent is generally $1,000 or the dependent's earned income plus $350. The results cannot be more than the regular standard deduction plus $350. For a single individual who's earned income plus the $350 is to be more than $6,100 (if that would be the regular standard deduction if the individual would not be a dependent) then the dependent's standard deduction cannot be more than $6,100. |
| For Head of Household filing purposes, if your father is your qualifying relative and he does not live with you, you must pay more than half the cost of keeping up his home for the entire year. |
| The IRS recognizes common-law marriages as legal marriages. This includes being known in your society as being married as husband and wife. If on the last day of your tax year you are living together in a common law marriage that is recognized in a state where you now live or in the state where the common law marriage began, you would be considered married for the entire year. If you have a valid common-law married that the IRS recognizes, then you can file a federal married filing jointly of married filing separate tax return. |
| You will determine if a final tax return is required for a decedent if the decedent had a filing requirement at time of death. You must file an income tax return for a decedent if you are the surviving spouse, executor, administrator or legal representative. Write "DECEASED", the decedent's name along with the date of death across the top of the income tax return. However, if filing a joint return write the name and address of the decedent and the surviving spouse in the address field. |
| If you fail to file a tax return, you may have to pay failure to file and/or a failure to pay penalty. If you do not file by the deadline, you could be liable for a failure to file penalty. You may have to failure to pay a penalty if you are required to file a tax return but fail to do so. If you willfully fail to file a tax return, especially after asked to do so by the IRS, you may be subject to criminal prosecution. Even though you are not able to pay the tax due on your tax return, you should at least file your tax return on time and ask for payment options. |
| A person who is a dependent may still have to file a tax return. This depends on the amount of the dependent's earned, unearned and gross income. A dependent who has earned income must file if the total is more than $1,000. The parent of a child under age 19 (or 24 if a student), may be able to elect to include the unearned income in the parent's return and the child will not have to file a return. If the child has both earned and unearned income, then the child must file a return if the income was $1,000 or his or her earned income up to the regular standard deduction plus $350. |
| Age is a factor in determining if you must file a tax return if you are 65 or older, you are a dependent or you have gross income of more than $3,900 at the end of your tax year. If the dependent's gross income was $3,900 or more, the dependent usually cannot be claimed as a dependent unless the dependent is a qualifying child. |
| Copyright © 2014 [Hera's Income Tax School]. All Annual Filing Season Program rights reserved. |
| Revised: 12/14/14 |
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