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Tax filing requirements

7 min read


7 min read


Your tax filing requirements usually depend on three things:

  • Your filing status
  • Your gross income
  • Your age

Filing status

There are five filing statuses:

  • Single
  • Married filing jointly
  • Married filing separately
  • Qualifying widow(er)
  • Head of household

Read on to learn more about each filing status and to get additional tax filing information.

Single

You meet the filing requirements for single status if, on the last day of the year, both of these apply:

  • You’re unmarried or legally separated from your spouse under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.
  • You don’t qualify to file as head of household or qualifying widow(er).

You might also be single if you were widowed before Jan. 1, 2023, and didn’t remarry during 2023. However, you might be able to lower your tax if you qualify to file as either:

  • Head of household
  • Qualifying widow(er) with a dependent child

If you meet the single status tax filing requirements and you’re under 65, you must file if your federal gross income was $13,850 or more. If you’re 65 or older, you must file if your federal gross income was $15,700 or more.

Married filing jointly

You’re considered married if, on the last day of the year, both of these applied:

  • You’re legally married.
  • You’re not legally separated under a divorce or separate maintenance decree.

A married couple can file married filing jointly or married filing separately returns.

If your spouse dies during the year, both you and your spouse are considered married for that year. If you don’t remarry during the year, you can file a joint return or separate returns.

If you do remarry in the same year your spouse died, you must do both of these:

  • File a joint return or separate returns with your new spouse.
  • File a married filing separately return for your deceased spouse.

Married filing separately

A married couple can file either a joint return or separate returns. However, a joint return often results in a lower federal tax.

If you file separate returns, the tax rates are usually higher. Plus, the IRS limits deductions and credits you can receive if you file separately.

Qualifying widow(er)

You meet the filing requirements for the qualifying widow(er) filing status if all of these apply:

  • You qualified to file a joint return for the year your spouse died. It doesn’t matter if you actually filed a joint return.
  • Your spouse died in either of the two tax years immediately before the current tax year and you haven’t remarried. So, for 2023, your spouse must have died in either 2021 or 2022.
  • You can claim one of these relatives as a dependent on your return, excluding foster children:
    • Son
    • Daughter
    • Stepson
    • Stepdaughter
  • You paid more than half the cost of maintaining your home for the year. This must have been the home of your child or stepchild for the entire year.

Head of household

To meet the filing requirements for the head of household filing status, these must be true:

  • You were unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year.
  • You paid more than half the cost of maintaining your home for the year.
  • A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year, excluding temporary absences. However, if the qualifying person is your dependent parent, they don’t have to live with you.

To learn more, see Publication 17: Your Federal Income Tax.

Married but considered unmarried for tax purposes

To be considered unmarried under the tax filing requirements, all of these must apply:

  • You file a separate return from your spouse.
  • You provided more than half the cost of maintaining your home for the entire year.
  • Your home was the main home for more than half the year for one of these people:
    • Son or stepson
    • Daughter or stepdaughter
    • Foster child
  • You can claim the dependent. However, this doesn’t apply if you can’t claim the dependent because the noncustodial parent is claiming the child. To learn more, see Publication 17: Your Federal Income Tax.
  • Your spouse didn’t live in the home during the last six months of the year.

Ex: Let’s assume you:

  • Lived apart from your spouse since Feb. 3, 2023
  • Don’t have a divorce decree or a written separation agreement
  • Don’t want to file a joint return
  • Have one child

If you paid more than half the cost of maintaining the home where you and your child lived all year, you’re considered unmarried for tax purposes. In this case, you’re entitled to file as head of household.

By filing as head of household, you might be able to claim credits and deductions not available to married filing separately filers. These include:

To find out about what about an exemption is, or to learn more, see Publication 501: Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information.

2023 tax filing requirements for most people

You’re required to file a return for 2023 if you have a certain amount of gross income. Gross income requirements for each filing status are:

  • Single filing status:
    • $13,850 if under age 65
    • $15,700 if age 65 or older
  • Married filing jointly:
    • $27,700 if both spouses under age 65
    • $29,200 if one spouse under age 65 and one age 65 or older
    • $30,700 if both spouses age 65 or older
  • Married filing separately — $5 for all ages
  • Head of household:
    • $20,800 if under age 65
    • $22,650 if age 65 or older
  • Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child:
    • $27,700 if under age 65
    • $29,200 if age 65 or older

2020 tax filing requirements for children and other dependents

If your parent or someone else can claim you as a dependent, filing requirements depend on your:

  • Gross income
  • Earned income
  • Unearned income

You need to file a return if you’re a:

  • Single dependent under age 65, not blind, and any of these apply:
    • Your unearned income was more than $1,100.
    • Your earned income was more than $12,400.
    • Your gross income was more than the larger of:
      • $1,100
      • Your earned income up to $12,050 plus $350
  • Single dependent either age 65 or older, or under age 65 and blind, and any of these apply:
    • Your unearned income was more than $2,750.
    • Your earned income was more than $14,050.
    • Your gross income was more than the larger of:
      • $2,750
      • Your earned income up to $12,050 plus $2,000
  • Single dependent age 65 or older, blind, and any of these apply:
    • Your unearned income was more than $4,400.
    • Your earned income was more than $15,700.
    • Your gross income was more than the larger of:
      • $4,400
      • Your earned income up to $12,050 plus $3,650

Additional tax filing information

You must file if any of these conditions apply for 2023:

  • You owe any special taxes, including any of these:
    • Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
    • Additional tax on a qualified plan, including an IRA, or other tax-favored account. However, if you’re filing only because you owe this tax, you can instead file Form 5329 by itself.
    • Household employment tax. However, if you’re filing only because you owe this tax, you can instead file Schedule H by itself.
    • Social Security and Medicare tax on either of these:
      • Tips you didn’t report to your employer
      • Wages you received from an employer who didn’t withhold these taxes
    • Recapture of first-time homebuyer credit
    • Write-in taxes, including uncollected Social Security, Medicare, or railroad retirement tax on these:
      • Tips you reported to your employer
      • Group term life insurance
      • Additional taxes on health savings accounts. To learn more, see instructions for Line 62.
    • Recapture taxes
  • You (or your spouse, if filing jointly) received health saving account (HSA), Archer Medical Savings Account (MSA), or Medicare Advantage MSA distributions.
  • You had net earnings from self-employment of at least $400.
  • You had wages of $108.28 or more from a church or qualified church-controlled organization that is exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes.
  • Advance payments of the premium tax credit were made for you, your spouse, or a dependent who enrolled in coverage through a marketplace. You (or whoever enrolled you) should have received Form 1095-A showing the amount of the advance payments.

If you’re due a refund, you don’t have to worry about paying a penalty for filing a late return after the tax deadline. However, if you don’t file a return to claim your refund within three years of your return’s due date, you won’t get your refund.

To learn more, see Form 1040.

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