My wife and I were married in 2006, but due to job situation, I live in VA and she lives in MD. We commute on the weekends. Some people say that we are "considered unmarried" for the tax filing purpose, and can file 2006 return as single people. But in Publication 17, "considered unmarried" only appears under the Head of Household qualification. We are not sure whether to file a joint return or separate returns as single persons.
Thank you.
Married people cannot file as single. You can file head of houshold if you did not live together (even for 1 weekend) for the last 6 months of the year and you (the person filing HOH) have a qualifying individual.You can always file married filing separate but that is not normally advantageous.
And of course you can file as married filing jointly even though you don't have the same address.
-- Don EA in Upstate NY
Never take tax advice from "some people."
As brownie (no relation) noted, if you are married you cannot file as single persons. Unless one or both of you meet the very restrictive rules for head of household, your filing choices are married filing jointly and married filing separately.
I'd say married filing separate - for states only this is because you proably don't meet the state residency requirements However, you should still be able to be married filing jointly for federal purposes ___________________________________
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Some states (Ohio; California?) require the same filing status on the state return(s) as used on the federal.
AFAIK both VA and MD require the same filing status on the state return as on the Federal. OP and spouse will have to allocate the VA and MD incomes on the state returns if they file jointly. VA and MD are reciprocal with respect to wages, so that will make it easier.
-- Phil Marti Clarksburg, MD
What you stated is generally the case. That state filing status must be the same as Federal. However, if one spouse doesn't meet the residency requirements, the spouse who isn't a resident for the full year probably can't file a tax return as a full year resident. Each state probably has its own nuances here. Bottom line - ya gotta read the instructions for each state. ___________________________________
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