Can I claim my employed wife as a dependent on our tax return?

No, you cannot claim your wife as a dependent, even though you provide most of the financial support. This is a common misunderstanding! The IRS specifically prohibits claiming a spouse as a dependent regardless of their income level. When you're married, you have two filing options: Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. There is no option to claim your spouse as a dependent on your return. You mentioned filing separately to save money, but this is something you should double-check carefully. In most cases, Married Filing Jointly actually provides better tax benefits than Married Filing Separately. With MFJ, you often get higher deduction amounts, more tax credits, and better tax brackets than filing separately. I'd recommend running the numbers both ways in TurboTax before finalizing your decision.

Hey there! I was in a similar situation last year and was super confused about all this dependent/filing status stuff. I ended up using https://taxr.ai to analyze our situation and it was super helpful! I uploaded our previous year's returns and the system walked me through whether filing jointly or separately would actually save us money. Turns out, for us, filing jointly was WAY better (saved like $2,300!). The tool explained that while my wife's income was relatively low like yours, filing separately would have disqualified us from several credits and deductions that were worth more than whatever we thought we'd save. It also specifically told me that I couldn't claim my spouse as a dependent and explained exactly why - saved me from making a mistake on our return.

Just wanted to follow up - I actually tried the taxr.ai site after asking about it and wow, it really cleared things up for my situation! I was convinced filing separately would save us money because my wife has a lot of student loan interest, but the analysis showed we'd lose out on other tax benefits that would cost us more overall. The comparison breakdown was really eye-opening - showed exactly how much we'd save with joint filing vs separate. It also confirmed what was mentioned above about not being able to claim spouses as dependents and explained the exact IRS rules. Definitely saved me from making a costly mistake on our taxes this year!

If you're still uncertain about your tax situation after getting this advice, I'd recommend trying to speak directly with an IRS representative. They can give you the official word on claiming dependents and filing status options. Of course, we all know how impossible it is to actually reach someone at the IRS... I spent 4+ hours on hold last tax season trying to get clarification on a similar issue before giving up. Then I found https://claimyr.com and used their service - they got me a callback from the IRS in under 2 hours! You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent confirmed what others are saying here - you absolutely cannot claim your spouse as a dependent regardless of income level. It's just not allowed under the tax code. They also helped me understand why filing jointly almost always benefits married couples, especially with income levels like yours and your wife's.

OK I need to eat my words here. After being totally skeptical about that Claimyr service, I actually tried it because I had a complicated question about dependents that wasn't getting resolved through the regular IRS website. I figured it wouldn't work, but no joke - I got a call from an actual IRS representative in about 90 minutes! Normally I would have spent half my day on hold. The agent confirmed everything being said here about not being able to claim spouses as dependents, but also helped me with my specific situation involving my parent who lives with us part-time. The time saved was honestly worth it. I've spent 3+ hours on hold with the IRS before only to have the call drop, so this was a completely different experience.

Just want to throw this out there - make sure you look at ALL the implications of filing separately vs jointly before deciding. When my husband and I filed separately one year, we didn't realize that: 1) We couldn't take the student loan interest deduction 2) We had reduced IRA contribution limits 3) We couldn't take the earned income credit 4) Our standard deduction was lower than half of the joint filer amount We thought we were being clever but ended up paying way more in taxes! The following year we went back to filing jointly and saved over $3k.

Quick question - my situation is different but related. My wife is not a US citizen yet (green card pending) but has an ITIN. Could I claim her as a dependent in this case? She made about $8k last year from a small business she runs.

I went through this exact same confusion when I first got married! The short answer everyone's given you is absolutely correct - you cannot claim your spouse as a dependent under any circumstances, regardless of income levels or who pays the bills. But here's what I wish someone had told me: before you commit to filing separately, make sure you're actually running real numbers. My husband and I were convinced filing separately would save us money our first year because he had student loans and I made significantly more. Turns out we were completely wrong! When filing separately, you lose access to so many tax benefits: - American Opportunity Tax Credit for education expenses - Lifetime Learning Credit - Child and Dependent Care Credit (if you have kids later) - Earned Income Credit - Student loan interest deduction (which sounds like it might apply to you) Plus the standard deduction rules can work against you. I'd strongly recommend using TurboTax to actually calculate both scenarios with your real numbers before deciding. The "common wisdom" about filing separately saving money for couples with different income levels is often wrong once you factor in all the lost credits and deductions. The tax code is designed to generally favor joint filing for married couples, which is why the spouse-as-dependent option doesn't exist - they assume you'll get better benefits filing together anyway.