Just bought a home

Tax Learner

Hello community.

I am 8 years into my marrage. Husband and I will be filing an uncontested divorce papers in Janurary of 2024. I bought a home this year using only my financials when we made separate living arrangements. In the past, I did our taxes online. How is my taxes going to be different for the coming tax season? Should I hire someone to do my taxes this coming tax season, or could I still do it myself?

rachels

Hi Tax Learner,

That is a great question. The biggest change will likely be your filing status. A change in filing status is pretty easy to handle yourself. You choose your filing status in a FreeTaxUSA account by going to Personal > Filing Status.

If you are still married at the end of 2023, you will typically file as Married Filing Separately (or Married Filing Jointly, if you choose). The other option may be to file as Head of Household if you lived apart for the last 6 months of 2023 and have a qualifying person, such as a dependent, who lived with you for the majority of the year. If you are unsure what filing status you should use, you may want to use the IRS's interactive tool to help you decide.

If you file as Married Filing Separately or as Head of Household, you will file one tax return, and your spouse will file a separate tax return. Both can be done online, though you would need to have a separate FreeTaxUSA account for each spouse.

Please note that if you file as Married Filing Separately, both spouses must either itemize their deductions or take the standard deduction. If you both agree to itemize, make sure to enter your home expenses.

As a homeowner, you can enter your home-related deductible expenses by going to Deductions/Credits > Itemized Deductions > Homeowner Expenses (1098).

If you run into specific problems with your return as you file with us, please feel free to reach out to our customer support team. They are happy to help with any questions you have regarding your account.