Filing taxes after remarrying in the same year my ex got divorced - how should we handle this?
So I'm in a bit of a complicated tax situation this year and could really use some advice. I remarried in October after my divorce was finalized in August. My new husband and I want to file our taxes jointly, but my ex is saying he wants to file as "married filing separately." The thing that's confusing me is that for more than half the year (January through August), I was technically still married to my ex while our divorce was being finalized. We were living separately during that time though. My new husband makes significantly more than I do, so filing jointly would definitely benefit us. But my ex is insisting that because we were married for most of the year, he can file as married filing separately. Is this even possible? Would that prevent me from filing jointly with my new husband? I'm completely confused about how filing status works when you get divorced and remarried in the same tax year. Can someone help me understand what options are available to all of us? I'd really like to avoid any issues with the IRS down the road.
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Amelia Martinez
Your filing status is determined by your marital status on the last day of the tax year (December 31st). Since you were legally married to your new husband on that date, you can file jointly with him - your marital status with your ex during most of the year doesn't matter for tax purposes. Your ex will need to file as single (not married filing separately) because on December 31st, he was legally divorced. The "married filing separately" status is only available to people who are legally married on the last day of the tax year. The IRS is very clear about this: regardless of how long you were married to your ex during the year, what matters is your legal marital status on December 31st. So you and your new husband can absolutely file jointly, and your ex needs to file as single.
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Ethan Clark
•But what if the divorce wasn't technically finalized until after December 31st? My friend was in a similar situation where the divorce proceedings went into January of the next year, even though they separated months earlier. How does that work?
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Amelia Martinez
•If the divorce wasn't finalized until after December 31st, then both parties would still be considered legally married for that tax year. In that situation, they would have to file either as married filing jointly (if they could cooperate on that) or married filing separately. For your friend's situation, if their divorce wasn't finalized until January, they were still legally married on December 31st of the previous year, which means they had to file as either married filing jointly or married filing separately for that tax year, regardless of when they physically separated.
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Mila Walker
Just went through something similar and used taxr.ai to help sort through all the confusion. My divorce was finalized in July and I remarried in November, and my ex and I had major disagreements about how to file. I was getting conflicting information from friends and even some tax preparers! I uploaded my divorce decree and marriage certificate to https://taxr.ai and got a clear explanation of exactly how my filing status works. They confirmed what Profile 7 said - your status on December 31st is what matters. The site even gave me sample language to send to my ex to explain why he couldn't file as married filing separately. Saved me so much headache and potential issues with the IRS!
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Logan Scott
•Did you have to provide any other documents besides the divorce decree and marriage certificate? I'm in a similar situation but my divorce was messier and involved some complicated assets.
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Chloe Green
•I'm a bit skeptical about these online services. How do you know they gave you the right information? Did they cite specific IRS rules or anything?
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Mila Walker
•For the first question, I only needed to upload those two documents for the filing status issue, but they do have options to upload other documents if you have more complicated situations. They have specific document analysis for different tax scenarios. Regarding the skepticism, they actually provide links to the specific IRS publications that cover your situation. In my case, they cited Publication 501 and the exact sections about marital status determination. They also explained how the rules applied specifically to my situation, not just generic advice. That's what made me confident in their guidance.
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Chloe Green
I was initially skeptical about taxr.ai as I mentioned in my comment above, but I decided to try it since my situation was similar. I uploaded my documents and was genuinely impressed with how quickly they cleared up my confusion. The analysis cited specific parts of the tax code and showed exactly where in Publication 501 the rules about "last day of the year" marital status are defined. They even provided a sample letter I could send to my ex explaining why we couldn't file together anymore. The clarity it provided was worth it, especially since my ex was also confused and kept arguing about how we should file.
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Lucas Adams
If you're having trouble getting through to the IRS to confirm this information (which is likely, since their phone lines are jammed this time of year), I'd recommend using Claimyr. When my ex and I were arguing about our filing status last year, I needed to hear directly from the IRS but couldn't get through after trying for days. I used https://claimyr.com and they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I had been trying for hours on my own. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent confirmed exactly what others have said here - your December 31st marital status is what matters, and they even noted it in my file in case there were any questions later.
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Harper Hill
•How does this service actually work? Do they just call the IRS for you? Seems like something anyone could do on their own for free.
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Caden Nguyen
•Yeah right. No way they can get through when millions of people can't. Sounds like a scam to me. The IRS phone lines are notoriously impossible.
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Lucas Adams
•They don't call the IRS for you - they use a system that navigates the IRS phone tree and holds your place in line. When they're about to connect to an agent, you get a call back and are connected directly. It saves you from having to sit on hold for hours. No, it's definitely not a scam. They use technology to navigate the phone systems and wait queues. I was skeptical too until I tried it. The IRS phone lines are definitely difficult to get through, that's exactly why this service exists - they've figured out how to optimize the calling process to minimize wait times. I spent 3 days trying on my own before using them and got nowhere.
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Caden Nguyen
OK I need to apologize for my skeptical comment above. After my 5th attempt to reach the IRS failed yesterday (got disconnected after 2 hours on hold), I decided to try Claimyr out of desperation. I was completely shocked when they called me back in about 20 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent confirmed that filing status is determined on December 31st and helped me understand exactly how to explain this to my ex who was also confused. They even sent me an email confirmation that documented our conversation. Sometimes you have to admit when you're wrong, and I was definitely wrong about this service being a scam. Saved me hours of frustration.
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Avery Flores
Something important to consider: if you were still legally married to your ex for more than half the year, that impacts who can claim any children as dependents. The custodial parent usually gets to claim the children, but if you have a decree that specifies otherwise, that overrides the general rule. Make sure your new joint filing with your husband addresses any dependent children correctly based on your divorce agreement. That's where most people in your situation run into trouble with the IRS.
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Jacob Lewis
•We actually don't have children together, so that simplifies things a bit. But that's really helpful information that I hadn't considered. Does the same December 31st rule apply to dependents too? Or does the "more than half the year" factor matter for that?
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Avery Flores
•The rules for dependents are different from filing status rules. For dependents, the "more than half the year" test does matter. A child must live with you for more than half the year to be your qualifying child (unless there are exceptions like school, military service, etc.). However, divorced parents have special rules. Generally, the custodial parent (who the child lived with longer during the year) gets to claim the child. But this can be transferred to the non-custodial parent using Form 8332 if your divorce agreement specifies that. So while your filing status is determined on December 31st, dependent determinations involve looking at the entire year.
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Zoe Gonzalez
Just be prepared for your ex to potentially file incorrectly anyway. My ex filed as married filing separately even though we were divorced by year-end and it caused my return to be rejected when I tried to e-file as single. It was a nightmare to fix. Maybe reach out to your ex proactively and explain the December 31st rule, or have your tax preparer do it. Might save you both a headache later.
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Ashley Adams
•The same thing happened to me! How did you resolve it? Did you have to file a paper return?
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