IRS Publication 17 — Your Federal Income Tax (Individuals)

You can choose married filing jointly as your filing status if you are considered married and both you and your spouse agree to file a joint return. On a joint return, you and your spouse report your combined income and deduct your combined allowable expenses. You can file a joint return even if one of you had no income or deductions.

If you and your spouse decide to file a joint return, your tax may be lower than your combined tax for the other filing statuses. Also, your standard deduction (if you don’t itemize deductions) may be higher, and you may qualify for tax benefits that don’t apply to other filing statuses. How to file. On Form 1040 or 1040 -SR, show your filing status as married filing jointly by checking the “Married filing jointly” box on the Filing Status line near the top of the form. Use the Married filing jointly column of the Tax Table, or Section B of the Tax Computation Worksheet, to figure your tax. If you and your spouse each have income, you may want to figure your tax both on a joint return and on separate returns (using the filing status of married filing separately). You can choose the method that gives the two of you the lower combined tax unless you are required to file separately. Spouse died. If your spouse died during the year, you are considered married for the whole year and can choose married filing jointly as your filing status. See Spouse died during the year under Married persons, earlier, for more information. If your spouse died in 2026 before filing a 2025 return, you can choose married filing jointly as your filing status on your 2025 return. Divorced persons. If you are divorced under a final decree by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year and you can’t choose married filing jointly as your filing status. Filing a Joint Return Both you and your spouse must include all of your income and deductions on your joint return. Accounting period. Both of you must use the same accounting period, but you can use different accounting methods. See Accounting Periods and Accounting Methods in chapter 1. Joint responsibility. Both of you may be held responsible, jointly and individually, for the tax and any interest or penalty due on your joint return. This means that if one spouse doesn't pay the tax due, the other may have to. Or, if one spouse doesn't report the correct tax, both spouses may be responsible for any additional taxes assessed by the IRS. One spouse may be held responsible for all the tax due even if all the income was earned by the other spouse.

You may want to file separately if:

• You believe your spouse isn't reporting all of their income, or TIP

• You don’t want to be responsible for any taxes due if your spouse doesn't have enough tax withheld or doesn't pay enough estimated tax.