Married, separated, my spouse lives in Spain - what filing status do I use for taxes?

You're in what's called a "nonresident alien spouse" situation, which is actually more common than you might think! You have a few options here. If your spouse doesn't have a US SSN or ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number), you can still file as "Married Filing Separately." Your husband would need to apply for an ITIN using Form W-7 if he has any US income or if you want to claim certain benefits. Since he lives in Spain and has no US income, you could potentially qualify for "Head of Household" status if you have a qualifying dependent and pay more than half the costs of keeping up a home. This would give you better tax rates than Married Filing Separately. Another option is to look into filing as "Married Filing Jointly" and treat your non-resident spouse as a resident for tax purposes using what's called a "Section 6013(g) election." This can sometimes result in lower taxes but means reporting worldwide income for both of you.

I went through something similar when my wife moved back to Germany while I stayed in the US. I was totally confused with all the tax stuff until I found this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that specializes in complicated international tax situations. They have this feature where they analyze your specific situation and documents and tell you exactly which filing status applies to you. In my case, they confirmed I could file as Married Filing Separately and showed me how to indicate my spouse was a nonresident alien without needing her to get an ITIN since she had no US income. The best part was they explained all the forms I needed and which tax software could handle my situation correctly. Saved me hours of research and stress!

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai since I mentioned my situation with my husband in Japan. I decided to try them after reading about them here, and it was seriously exactly what I needed! They analyzed our situation and confirmed I could file as Married Filing Separately, explained how to handle my husband's foreign status on my California return, and gave me step-by-step instructions I could follow. They even pointed out a foreign tax credit I qualified for that I had no idea about. The document review feature was super helpful - I uploaded my Japanese husband's income statements and they explained exactly what needed to be reported (turns out, almost nothing since we were filing separately and he had no US income). Definitely recommend if you're dealing with international spouse tax complications!

If you're getting stuck with your complicated tax situation, especially with international elements, I'd recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get direct help from the IRS. I was in a similar situation with my spouse in Korea, and after weeks of getting nowhere with online research, I used Claimyr to get through to an actual IRS agent. They have this system where they call the IRS for you and navigate the phone tree, then call you when they have an agent on the line. You can see how it works in their demo video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with walked me through exactly how to file with a nonresident alien spouse and confirmed which forms I needed. Honestly saved me so much confusion and probably prevented me from making a mistake that could have led to an audit.

I need to update my skeptical comments above. After spending THREE DAYS trying to get through to the IRS myself (kept getting disconnected after waiting 1+ hours), I broke down and tried Claimyr. Within 45 minutes, I was talking to an actual IRS representative who helped clarify my situation with my foreign spouse. They confirmed exactly what filing status to use and explained how to handle the ITIN application process since we wanted to file jointly in the future. The agent also explained what documentation I needed to keep in case of questions later, which wasn't something I'd found mentioned anywhere online. Honestly, I'm shocked at how smooth the process was compared to my previous attempts. Time is money, and this saved me both.

Everyone's making this so complicated. The easy solution: file as "Married Filing Separately" and write "NRA" (Non-Resident Alien) where it asks for your spouse's SSN. You don't need an ITIN for your spouse unless they had US income or you're trying to claim certain credits. I've been doing this for years with my wife in Thailand. Most tax software can handle it, but you might need to override some error messages that pop up about missing SSNs. H&R Block's software has worked fine for me.

Watch out for the "innocent spouse" rules if you're separated but still legally married. Since you're responsible for any tax issues on a joint return, filing separately is probably safest in your situation, especially if you don't have much contact with your spouse or visibility into his foreign income. Also, if you ever plan to divorce, consider how filing status might affect that process. Tax filings can sometimes be used as evidence in divorce proceedings regarding financial separation.