Bradley Griffin Roussell Tax & Financial LLC
List of different ways to file a return
You must determine your filing status before you can determine whether you must file a tax return, your standard deduction , and your tax. You also use your filing status to determine whether you are eligible to claim certain deductions and credits.
Head of Household
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You are unmarried or “considered unmarried” on the last day of the year. See Marital Status , earlier, and Considered Unmarried , later.
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You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.
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A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school). However, if the qualifying person is your dependent parent, he or she does not have to live with you. See Special rule for parent , later, under Qualifying Person.
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Married Filing Separately
You can choose married filing separately as your filing status if you are married. This filing status may benefit you if you want to be responsible only for your own tax or if it results in less tax than filing a joint return.
If you and your spouse do not agree to file a joint return, you must use this filing status unless you qualify for head of household status, discussed later.
Single
Your filing status is single if you are considered unmarried and you do not qualify for another filing status. To determine your marital status, see Marital Status , earlier.
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Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child
Your filing status may be single if you were widowed before January 1, 2014, and did not remarry before the end of 2014. You may, however, be able to use another filing status that will give you a lower tax. See Head of Household and Qualifying Widow(er) With Dependent Child , later, to see if you qualify
Married Filing Jointly
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 do not itemize deductions) may be higher, and you may qualify for tax benefits that do not apply to other filing statuses.
Small Business
There are electronic filing options available for many of the taxes and forms that small businesses are required to file, such as excise and employment taxes, Forms 1120, 7004, 1041 and various information returns.
If you have employees, you are responsible for several federal, state, and local taxes. As an employer, you must withhold Federal income tax withholding, social security and Medicare taxes, and Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) taxes.