Divorce/abandonment

What is the name of your state? South Dakota

My wife left me 12 years ago. I had a stoke and she could not deal with it. I have been drawing Social Security since and have not filed any tax returns. I now want to apply for the US stimulious bonus but I we are not legally divorced and I am not sure if she claims me or not. Would abandonment, in this case, qualify me to file as single and not have to have her income information?

redbran said:

What is the name of your state? South Dakota

My wife left me 12 years ago. I had a stoke and she could not deal with it. I have been drawing Social Security since and have not filed any tax returns. I now want to apply for the US stimulious bonus but I we are not legally divorced and I am not sure if she claims me or not. Would abandonment, in this case, qualify me to file as single and not have to have her income information?

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Legally, you don't have any choice - you can't file as single. You have to file as married, filing separately. Since she's not supporting you, you don't have to worry about whether she claims you or not (she would get in trouble with the IRS if you file separately and she claims you, though, so you might want to let her know out of courtesy).

If you're on speaking terms, you might do better by filing jointly and splitting the savings.

But you don't want to deal with this in the future, so file for divorce ASAP and get it fixed.

mistoffolees said:

Legally, you don't have any choice - you can't file as single. You have to file as married, filing jointly. Since she's not supporting you, you don't have to worry about whether she claims you or not (she would get in trouble with the IRS if you file separately and she claims you, though, so you might want to let her know out of courtesy).

If you're on speaking terms, you might do better by filing jointly and splitting the savings.

But you don't want to deal with this in the future, so file for divorce ASAP and get it fixed.

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Hopefully you didn't meant to state that he has to file married filing jointly, because that is not correct. He can file married filing separately. In this instance, that would not be any different than filing a single return. The results would be the same.

Also, I sincerely doubt that she has been claiming him, since that would also require her to report his social security disability benefits on her return as well, and probably paying some tax on those benefits.

LdiJ said:

Hopefully you didn't meant to state that he has to file married filing jointly, because that is not correct. He can file married filing separately. In this instance, that would not be any different than filing a single return. The results would be the same.

Also, I sincerely doubt that she has been claiming him, since that would also require her to report his social security disability benefits on her return as well, and probably paying some tax on those benefits.

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You are, of course, correct and I've fixed it.