understated and that it would be unfair to hold you responsible
for the liability.
For separation of liability
relief at the time of your request you must show that you are divorced or
legally separated from your spouse with whom you filed the return. You can
also show that you are widowed or that you have not been a member of the
same household for at lease twelve months before your separation of
liability relief request.
If you do not itemize deductions, you are
entitled to a higher standard deduction if you are 65 or older
at the end of the year. You are considered 65 on the day before
your 65th birthday. Therefore, you can take a higher standard
deduction for 2014 if you were born before January 2, 1950.
You can also take a higher
deduction if you are blind. If you are 65 or older or blind at the end of
the 2014 tax year, you can take an additional standard deduction amount of
$1,550 for each if you are single or head of household. However, if you are
married you can only take an additional standard deduction of $1,200 for
being over 65 years old and $1,200 for being blind. Therefore, if you are
married and both you and your spouse are over age 65 and one of you is blind
at the end of the tax year, you can an additional $3,600 standard deduction
amount. If both you and your spouse are over 65 year old and both of you are
blind at the end of the year, you can take an additional $4,800 standard
deduction amount.
For example, Kevin's wife died January 20, 2013, and by the
end of 2013 Kevin had not remarried. During 2014, and 2015, he
has continued to keep up a home for himself and his child for
whom he can claim an exemption. The last year you can file
jointly is the year that your spouse died. Kevin's wife died in January of
2013 so he can file married filing jointly with his deceased wife. If Kevin
gets married before the end of the year, then he can file married filing
jointly with his new wife.
After that, Kevin can file as Qualifying Widower
if he qualifies. He can use the Qualifying Widower filing status for two
years after the last year that he filed married filing jointly with this
wife. The qualifications for the Qualifying Widower filing status are
similar to the head of household filing status. You have to have a
qualifying child who lived with you for all of the tax year. You must have
paid more than half the cost of the costs of maintaining a home for this
child. The qualifying child cannot be a fosterchild but the child can be
your stepchild. You can benefit from taking the Qualifying Widow(er) filing
status because you qualify for the married filing jointly tax rates if you
use this filing status. Using the qualifying widow(er) filing status will
entitle you to use the highest standard deduction amount. The married filing
jointly and the qualifying widow (er) filing statuses qualify for the
highest standard deduction amounts. You can use Form 1040 to file using the
qualifying widow(er) filing status and you can use Form 1040A if your
taxable income is less than $100,000.
If you could be claimed as a dependent by another
person, you cannot claim yourself and you cannot claim anyone else
as a dependent. You can file your own tax return though. You can
be even be married and file as married filing jointly and still be a
dependent on someone else's tax return.
A dependent is either a
qualifying child or a qualifying relative and each type of dependent has its
own rules to follow. Usually qualifying child rules apply to
