Unique Question regarding Common Law Marriage Tax Filing Status

Yes, the IRS does recognize common law marriages that are valid in the state where they were established. Since Colorado is one of the states that recognizes common law marriage, you would be able to file as married filing jointly for federal tax purposes. You need to understand that once you're considered married under common law, you're fully married - there's no "common law divorce." You'd need to go through formal divorce proceedings to end the marriage legally. As for amending previous returns, you can generally amend returns from the last three tax years. So if you established your common law marriage in 2019 when you moved to Colorado and merged finances, you could potentially amend your 2022, 2023, and 2024 returns if we're currently in 2025. You'd use Form 1040X for the amendments. For documentation, there's no single document that proves common law marriage. You'd want to gather evidence like: joint bank accounts, your mortgage showing both names, any documents where you've named each other as beneficiaries, affidavits from friends/family confirming your relationship, and documentation showing you present yourselves as married to the community.

I was in a somewhat similar situation last year and found the tax analyzer at https://taxr.ai incredibly helpful. It let me upload our financial documents and run different scenarios - filing separately, jointly, and it calculated the difference showing we'd save about $3,200 by filing jointly as common law married. The tool analyzed our mortgage statements, joint accounts, and other docs to help build our case for common law status. It also helped me prepare documentation to support our claim in case of an audit. It even generated a letter explaining our situation that we included with our return. My partner was skeptical at first because we'd been filing separately for years, but the analysis really cleared things up and gave us confidence to make the change.

I was initially skeptical about using an online tool for something as important as our tax filing status, but after researching more about common law marriage in our state (Colorado), I decided to try taxr.ai that someone mentioned above. I'm actually really glad I did! The tool confirmed we met all the criteria and showed we could save around $4,700 by filing jointly. It organized all our documentation (joint bank statements, mortgage, beneficiary designations, etc.) in a way that clearly supported our common law status. The best part was that it flagged some deductions we'd been missing by filing separately all these years. We're now working on amending our last three years of returns and the potential refund is substantial. Definitely worth checking out if you're in a similar situation!

Just want to add a real tip here - if you need to talk to the IRS about amending returns or getting clarification on common law marriage documentation, good luck getting through to them on the phone. I spent WEEKS trying to reach a human at the IRS about my common law marriage situation. Finally found https://claimyr.com and used their service to get a callback from the IRS in under 45 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed exactly what documents they look for when reviewing common law marriage claims, which was super helpful for my situation. Apparently they see a lot of these cases and having the right documentation upfront prevents a lot of headaches.

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After struggling for nearly 3 weeks trying to get through to the IRS myself about my common law marriage situation, I decided to try the service, fully expecting to waste my money. To my surprise, I got a call connecting me to an IRS representative in about 35 minutes. The agent was incredibly helpful and confirmed that since my partner and I met all the requirements for common law marriage in Texas (where we live), we could file jointly AND amend our previous returns from the last three years. They even walked me through exactly what documentation to include with our amended returns. This saved me countless hours of research and worry. Sometimes being proven wrong is actually a good thing!

Something important that hasn't been mentioned yet - if you're going to claim common law married status, make sure you're consistent about it across ALL government agencies. My cousin claimed common law married on taxes but then "single" for some healthcare subsidies and got into a huge mess. The IRS shares information with other federal agencies, and inconsistencies can trigger audits. If you're married for tax purposes, you're married for ALL federal purposes.

Has anyone here actually gone through an IRS audit regarding common law marriage? I'm worried that claiming this status might increase our chances of being audited, especially if we amend previous returns.