Your yearly tax filing journey begins with one question: Are you Single, Married filing jointly, Married filing separately, Head of Household or a Qualifying Surviving Spouse?
Your answer can cost you thousands of dollars if you choose poorly. Your filing status affects most aspects of your tax return, including your tax bracket and the deductions and credits you can take.
«For a middle-class household, a wrong filing status can cost between $3,000 and $7,500 in taxes that year,» said Evan Paul, managing partner of Paul Advisory and Legal Group. This cost can come from lost credits and deductions or higher marginal brackets, according to Paul.
Understanding the five filing statuses is the first step to choosing the best option for your tax situation. Many taxpayers assume the IRS default is optimal, but it’s often not, Paul said. Your filing status can be a powerful tool to reduce your tax liability. By running various scenarios to see if you can benefit from Head of Household, Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Surviving Spouse status, you may be able to reduce your tax bill or increase your refund.
Keep reading to learn more about the five filing statuses and what it takes to qualify for each one. We’ll also talk about another common taxpayer situation people often believe is a filing status but isn’t: Self-employed.
The 5 core filing statuses: Definitions and eligibility rules
The IRS recognizes five filing statuses for taxpayers: Single people can choose one of three statuses, depending on their situation: Single, Head of Household, or Qualifying Surviving Spouse. Married couples can choose to file jointly or separately.
In general, your filing status is determined by Dec. 31 of the tax year, unless your spouse passed during that tax year.
Here’s who can claim each filing status:
- Single: you’re unmarried, divorced or legally separated.
- Married Filing Jointly: you’re married and both you and your spouse agree to file a joint return, or your spouse passed in that tax year.
- Married Filing Separately: you’re married and you or your spouse do not wish to file a joint return.
- Head of Household: you’re single, paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year and a qualifying dependant lived with you in the home for more than half the year.
- Qualifying surviving spouse (formerly Qualifying Widow/Widower): Your spouse passed in the past two years, you haven’t remarried and you have a dependent child who has lived in your home the entire year.
The single biggest financial impact: Standard deductions
Tax deductions reduce your taxable income, which directly reduces the amount of federal taxes you have to pay each year. Taxpayers have a choice of itemizing their deductions on Schedule-A of Form 1040, which entails careful recordkeeping throughout the year, or taking the standard deduction.
Itemizing deductions allows taxpayers to claim expenses such as state and local taxes, mortgage interest, medical expenses and charitable contributions, up to a limit.
Taking the standard deduction minimizes paperwork and tracking to make filing taxes easier, and can deliver greater tax savings in many situations. Even if you take the standard deduction, you can still deduct certain expenses, characterized as «above-the-line» deductions. These include eligible health savings account and IRA contributions, student loan interest and educator expenses.
Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, roughly one-third of taxpayers itemized their deductions. After the TCJA increased the standard deduction, only 10% of taxpayers itemized, according to data from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The standard deduction changes every year based on inflation. It also varies depending on filing status, so knowing the standard deduction for the current tax year is an important aspect in determining how it’s best to file.
Standard deduction amounts by filing status in 2026 (2025 income year)
|
Filing Status |
Standard deduction (2025) |
|
Single |
$15,750 |
|
Married Filing Separately |
$15,750 |
|
Head of Household (HOH) |
$23,625 |
|
Married Filing Jointly |
$31,500 |
|
Qualifying Surviving Spouse (QSS) |
$31,500 |
|
Additional Standard Deduction Amount for Those Who are 65+ or Blind (Single or HOH) |
$2,000 |
|
Additional Standard Deduction Amount for Those Who are 65+ or Blind (Married or QSS) |
$1,600 |
How income tax brackets change everything
Your tax bracket determines the percentage of tax you pay based on your income. The US uses a progressive tax system, meaning your tax rate increases with your income. Your filing status determines the income levels required for each tax bracket, which in turn determines the amount of tax you pay.
The following are some key tax bracket thresholds and tax rates for tax year 2025 (see IRS Publication 17 (2025) for the full list):
| Tax rate | Single | Married filing jointly | Married filing separately | Head of household |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $1 — $11,925 | $1 — $23,850 | $1 — $11,925 | $1 — $17,000 |
| 12% | $11,926 — $48,475 | $23,851 — $96,950 | $11,926 — $48,475 | $17,001 — $64,850 |
| 22% | $48,476 — $103,350 | $96,951 — $206,700 | $48,476 — $103,350 | $64,851 — $103,350 |
| 24% | $103,351 — $197,300 | $206,701 — $394,600 | $103,351 — $197,300 | $103,351 — $197,300 |
| 32% | $197,301 — $250,525 | $394,601 — $501,050 | $197,301 — $250,525 | $197,301 — $250,500 |
| 35% | $250,526 — $626,350 | $501,051 — $751,600 | $250,526 — $626,350 | $250,501 — $626,350 |
| 37% | $626,351+ | $751,601+ | $626,351+ | $626,351+ |
However, you don’t pay the highest tax rate on all of your income. Instead, you pay each tax rate on only the portion of income that falls into the corresponding bracket. Think of it like paying tax in layers from the bottom up.
For instance, if you’re single and made $70,000 in 2025, you’d fall into the 22% tax bracket. However, you’d actually pay 10% tax on your first $11,925 of income, 12% on the next $36,550, and finally 22% on the remaining $21,525.
Two single filers could hit higher tax brackets faster than a couple filing jointly, even given the same combined income. That would raise their marginal tax rate, meaning they’d pay a higher percentage on more of their income.
On the other hand, someone filing as Head of Household has wider tax brackets than someone filing as a Single taxpayer and will be taxed less overall on the same amount of income.
The married decision: Joint versus separate
The wider tax brackets and access to additional tax credits typically mean that married couples who file jointly will enjoy greater tax savings. But certain situations make it advantageous for married couples to file separately — either to lower their overall tax bills or to reduce liability if one partner has high tax debt and the couple generally keeps their finances separate.
Filing separately can help couples manage risk and protect assets, Paul explained, as it can keep one spouse away from the other spouse’s tax exposure, student loans, business liabilities and even tax audits.
Filing separately can also help married couples meet certain thresholds for deductions they might not be able to reach if they filed jointly. For example, the IRS allows you to deduct eligible medical expenses only if they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, or AGI. If you’re married filing jointly, that AGI includes both spouses’ incomes. If spouse A had a low income but high medical expenses and spouse B had a high income, spouse A might be able to clear that 7.5% threshold and claim the deduction if they file separately, but not if they file jointly and spouse B’s income is factored into the joint AGI calculation.
However, filing separately can have drawbacks for most couples, as you may not be entitled to certain deductions and credits. The following deductions either can’t be claimed or phase out at lower thresholds compared to filing jointly:
- Individual Retirement Account contributions (phaseout at lower AGI in certain situations)
- Student loan interest (can’t be claimed)
- Capital losses (lower limit for the amount of claimable losses)
Married couples filing separately also forego the following tax credits in most cases, but exceptions can apply:
- Earned income tax credit
- Child and dependent care credit
- American Opportunity Tax Credit
- Lifetime learning credit
And the following credits are reduced at income levels half those of a joint return:
- Child tax credit
- Retirement savings contribution credit (saver’s credit)
Married couples filing separately must decide, together, if they will itemize or take the standard deduction. They both have to choose the same deduction. If one partner wants to itemize medical expenses, for instance, because those expenses exceed the standard deduction, the other spouse must also itemize. That could lead to a smaller deduction for the spouse.
Filing separately may also cost more for professional tax preparation, since it’s more time-consuming to file two forms instead of one.
The self-employment wrinkle: Schedule C and self-employment tax
Some people think that self-employed is another filing status, but it’s actually an income type. You can file as self-employed with the status of Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household or Qualifying Surviving Spouse.
Self-employed individuals are generally responsible for paying a 15.3% self-employment tax on 92.35% of their net earnings from self-employment, to cover Social Security and Medicare. W-2 employees share these costs with their employer and have their portion deducted from their paycheck.
The IRS requires that most people pay 90% of their taxes for the current year or 100% of the past year’s total taxes owed before the end of the year. (Rules differ slightly for high-income taxpayers.) If you owe $1,000 or more when you file your tax return, you could be subject to a tax penalty.
If a W-2 employee has their W-4 form set up correctly, they shouldn’t have to worry about underpayments, since their employer is deducting taxes from every paycheck.
But self-employed individuals are responsible for their own taxes. Making quarterly estimated payments using Form 1040-ES can help avoid penalties.
The Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction can help small business owners reduce their tax liability. The QBI allows self-employed individuals, sole proprietors, partners and S-corporations to deduct up to 20% of their income.
High-earning independent contractors can also use other strategies to reduce their tax liability. These include making contributions to tax-deferred retirement plans or using an S-corporation or partnership structure to shift part of the business income away from the self-employment tax, Paul said.
Special tax situations and taking action
For some individuals, filing as Head of Household or Qualifying Surviving Spouse can yield significant tax advantages. These statuses allow individuals to take advantage of wider tax brackets and larger standard deductions. Someone filing as Qualifying Surviving Spouse uses the same tax brackets as a married couple filing jointly and enjoys the same standard deduction.
Someone filing as Head of Household has a standard deduction higher than a single filer, but not as high as a married couple. Likewise, the income levels for the various tax brackets fall in between Single filers and Married Filing Jointly.
Paul pointed out the advantages of a non-married parent filing as Head of Household. «When divorced or separated parents file as single, the tax rates go up, and the standard deduction goes down,» he said. «This can cost those parents thousands of dollars each year.»
Before filing as Head of Household, however, make sure you can claim responsibility for 50% or more of the living expenses for yourself and your child. Generally, only one parent can claim Head of Household.
Before you choose your filing status, run the various scenarios to see how you can maximize your tax savings, especially if your situation has changed through marriage or divorce. If you started a business or experienced a dramatic change in household income, you may also benefit from exploring different filing status options.
Use a tax calculator or work with a trusted tax professional to determine your best filing status option. If you’re thinking about filing your taxes yourself, CNET tested and reviewed the top at-home tax software. We found H&R Block and TurboTax to be the best tax services overall, best for self-employed or complicated tax situations. For simple filers using the standard deduction, we found Cash App Taxes and H&R Block to be great free filing options.