Filing Status Checker (US)

About the Filing Status Checker (US)

Work out your US filing status for tax year 2026 from your situation on the last day of the year, with the rules of Publication 501: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household or qualifying surviving spouse. When more than one fits, the IRS lets you choose the one that gives the lowest tax, so the checker also works out the regular income tax for each way of filing on your income.

Answer the questions about your marriage, your home and who lived with you, and enter your income (and your spouse's). The checker says which statuses fit and why, which costs least, and by how much. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Without a pass the free preview shows your filing status, in full; a Pro pass opens every reason and figure: why each status fits or not, the tax under each way of filing, the CSV and printing.

The five filing statuses

• Single: unmarried on the last day of the year (never married, divorced or legally separated under a final decree, or the marriage was annulled) and no other status fits.
• Married filing jointly: married on the last day of the year, or your spouse died during the year, and you both agree. Not when either spouse was a nonresident alien during the year, unless you choose to be treated as US residents for the whole year. You are both responsible for the whole tax.
• Married filing separately: any married person. The tax is usually higher than on a joint return, and several credits and deductions are lost or reduced; if your spouse itemizes, you must itemize too.
• Head of household: unmarried or considered unmarried, more than half the cost of keeping up a home paid, and a qualifying person living with you for more than half the year (a dependent parent may live elsewhere).
• Qualifying surviving spouse: for the 2 years after the year your spouse died, with a dependent child or stepchild living with you all year: the joint rates and standard deduction, without a joint return.

The standard deduction for 2026: $16,100 single or separate, $24,150 head of household, $32,200 joint or surviving spouse (Rev. Proc. 2025-32).

Who is a qualifying person for head of household

From Table 4 of Publication 501: your qualifying child (a son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, sibling or a descendant of one) who lived with you more than half the year, and if married only if you can claim the child; another relative you can claim who lived with you more than half the year; or your parent whom you can claim, even living elsewhere, when you pay more than half the cost of the parent's main home for the whole year (a rest home counts). A spouse is never your qualifying person, and someone you can claim only through a multiple support agreement does not count. Temporary absences for school, illness, business, vacation or military service count as living with you.

Considered unmarried

A married person counts as unmarried for head of household when all of these are true on the last day of the year: you file a separate return; you paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home; your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the year; your home was the main home of your child, stepchild or foster child for more than half the year; and you can claim the child as a dependent (or could, except that the other parent claims the child under the rules for divorced or separated parents). A spouse who was a nonresident alien at any time in the year also lets you count as unmarried, unless you choose to treat the spouse as a resident.

Qualifying surviving spouse

For tax year 2026 your spouse must have died in 2024 or 2025 and you must not have remarried before the end of 2026. You also need a child or stepchild (not a foster child) whom you can claim as a dependent, or could except that the child's income was too high, the child filed a joint return or you can be claimed by someone else; the child lived in your home all year (temporary absences aside); you paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home; and you could have filed jointly for the year your spouse died. In the year of death itself you can file jointly with your late spouse.

How the tax is compared

For each way of filing that fits, the checker works out the regular income tax of 2026 before credits: your income less the larger of the standard deduction (with the additional amount for age 65 or blindness) and your itemized deductions, less the deduction for seniors where it applies (not on separate returns), at the rate schedules of Rev. Proc. 2025-32. For a married couple it compares the household's total: one joint return, two separate returns, or your head of household return beside your spouse's separate one. Credits are not in the comparison, and separate returns lose several of them, so a close call is worth checking with your own return.

Official sources

• IRS Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information
• IRS Interactive Tax Assistant: What is my filing status?
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32: inflation-adjusted amounts for tax year 2026 (sections 4.37, 4.38, 4.42 and 4.47)

Limitations

• For US citizens and resident aliens for the whole of tax year 2026; nonresident and dual-status filers have other rules (Publication 519).
• Whether someone is your qualifying child or dependent is taken from your answers: the age, relationship, residency, support and tie-breaker tests are in Publication 501.
• The comparison is the regular income tax before credits: credits, the alternative minimum tax, state taxes and the rules for community property states are left out.
• Not tax advice: when the tax is close, or your case is unusual, check Publication 501 or ask a tax professional before you file.

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