Qualified Widow or Widower

What Is a Qualified Widow or Widower?

The term qualified widow or widower alludes to a tax filing status that permits an enduring spouse to utilize the married filing jointly tax rates on an individual return. The provision is great for as long as two years following the death of the individual's spouse. The taxpayer must stay unmarried for no less than two years following the death of their spouse to fit the bill for this status. Filing as a qualified widow(er) permits the taxpayer to receive the highest standard deduction for their taxes, gave they don't [itemize](/organized explanation) deductions.

Grasping Qualified Widows or Widowers

Qualifying Widow(er) is one of the five official filing situations with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It gives financial relief to the people who lose their spouses and might be battling with death-related expenses or other standard household bills. Utilizing the qualified widow(er) status permits the enduring spouse to file taxes as though they were as yet married, notwithstanding the way that their partner is deceased.

You can file taxes as a qualified widow(er) for the year your spouse kicked the bucket, as well as two years following their death. Thus, contingent upon the timing of when the spouse passed during the year, this time span could technically be three calendar years. From that point onward, you must opt for the situation with either single filer or head of household.

Since it is a fairly unusual status, there are specific rules and regulations about who qualifies. Coming up next are qualification rules set out by the IRS for the qualified widow(er) filing status:

You were entitled to file a joint return with your spouse for the year your spouse passed on. It doesn't make any difference whether you really filed a joint return.
Your spouse kicked the bucket in the previous two years, and you didn't remarry before the finish of the resulting tax year. For instance, if your spouse passed on in 2018 or 2019 and you were unmarried as of Dec. 31, 2020, you could file as a qualifying widow(er) for the tax year 2020.
You have no less than one child or stepchild (not a foster child) living with you whom you can claim as a dependent. Keep as a primary concern that you don't really need to claim them on your tax return, yet they must technically qualify as one.
You paid the greater part the cost of keeping up a permanent place to stay for the year. Expenses for home upkeep, including food to rent or mortgage, homeowners insurance to property taxes, repairs, utilities, and other home maintenance fees.

As indicated above, you get every one of the upsides of being married and filing jointly when you utilize the qualified widow(er) status — strikingly the deductions and income tax brackets. The standard deduction of $25,100 for 2021 ($25,900 for 2022) and the tax brackets are no different for qualifying widow(er) and married filing jointly filing situations with. Both are more great than those for the head of household and, of course, the single filing status.

Taxpayers who don't remarry in the year their spouse kicks the bucket can file jointly with the deceased spouse for that tax year. From that point onward, they can opt for Qualifying Widow(er) status.

Special Considerations

Having a dependent child is a key part of filing as a qualified widow or widower. As a matter of fact, it's really an exceptionally critical part of the tax filing status. There is much of the time an addendum to the title that specifies it, quite qualified widow(er) with dependent child.

The law additionally directs that the dependent child must have resided in the home with the taxpayer the entire year, beside impermanent unlucky deficiencies, similar to excursions or seeing family members. There are exemptions on the off chance that a child's presence is for under a year, for things like birth, death, and even hijacking.

Likewise, the child can't qualify if:

They had a gross income of $4,300 or more.
They filed a joint return.
You could be claimed as a dependent on another person's return.

Features

Qualified widow or widower is a tax filing status that permits an enduring spouse to utilize the married filing jointly tax rates on their tax return.
The qualifying widow(er) status offers a similar standard deduction amount and tax bracket ranges as those for married couples who file jointly.
The survivor must stay unmarried for something like two years following the time of the spouse's death to meet all requirements for the tax status.
The taxpayer must have somewhere around one dependent child and have dealt with to some degree half of the household costs.
The enduring spouse must file as single or head of household following the third year of their spouse's death.