My husband passed away last year, and I will be filing a joint return. Are any special return notations required to indicate my husband is deceased?
If you are a surviving spouse filing a joint return and no personal representative has been appointed, you should sign the return and write in the signature area, "filing as surviving spouse." The final return should have the word "Deceased," the decedent's name, and the date of death written across the top of the return. For additional information, refer to Tax Topic 356, Decedents.
References:
Can a person claim a girlfriend as a wife if they have a child or do they have to be married?
You are considered married if you are living together in a common law marriage that is recognized in the state where you now live or in the state where the common law marriage began. If you are considered married, then you may file as married filing jointly. If you are not considered married, then you would have to file as single or head of household.
In order to claim your girlfriend as a dependent, your relationship must not be in violation of local law, your girlfriend must have lived with you for the entire year, and the following 5 dependency exemption tests must be met:
- Member of household or relationship test.
- Citizenship test.
- Joint return test.
- Gross income test.
- Support test.
Refer to
Publication 501 (PDF), Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information, for an explanation of the five exemption tests (5).
References:
- Publication 501 (PDF), Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information
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