{"id":20040,"date":"2017-06-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/"},"modified":"2020-02-01T14:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T20:37:11","slug":"married-and-changing-filing-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/filing\/personal-tax-planning\/married-and-changing-filing-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Can my spouse and I change our filing status from married filing jointly to married filing separately?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, even if you\u2019ve filed jointly for years, you can change your filing status to married filing separately on a new return whenever you wish. You won\u2019t pay a penalty for changing your filing status. However, when choosing your filing status, you should calculate your federal and state returns using each filing status before making any changes. Then, you can see which return results in the larger refund or the smaller balance due.<\/p>\n<p>If you change your filing status from joint to separate, you\u2019ll usually pay more tax. That\u2019s because many of the following items are reduced or not allowed when married filing separately:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Credits<\/li>\n<li>Deductions<\/li>\n<li>Exclusions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, you should do your research before changing your filing status from joint to separate.<\/p>\n<h2>What adjusted gross income (AGI) amount do I use if I filed jointly with a different spouse in 2024 or my filing status has changed from 2024?<\/h2>\n<p>If you change your filing status from single last year to married filing jointly this year and you\u2019re being asked for your prior-year AGI, you should use your individual adjusted gross income (AGI) from your respective 2024 returns. So, add together your 2024 AGI and your spouse&#8217;s 2024 AGI to fill out the AGI line on your joint 2025 return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, even if you\u2019ve filed jointly for years, you can change your filing status to married filing separately on a new return whenever you wish. You won\u2019t pay a penalty for changing your filing status. However, when choosing your filing status, you should calculate your federal and state returns using each filing status before making [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-tax-planning","category-filing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>Changing Filing Status | H&amp;R Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wondering how you can change your filing status from joint last year to separate this year? 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