Tax question - head of household gets married to girl on SSI. Changes?

Your bigger concern is that legally, you have not supported your daughter. Without anything registered with the courts, the mother can still file for retroactive child support, and no amount of evidence would stop that. Further, you have no legal rights to the child, so she can legally cut you off at any time, and if anything happens to her, you have no right to take the child, only her family does.

While the two of you are cooperating, you need to see a certified mediator to put whatever your agreement is into legal form for filing with the court, pro se.

http://dads-house.org/MedationNFamilyLaw

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dads_House_Ed_Ctr/

Legally you cannot file HOH and claim your daughter UNLESS she spends MORE than half the year with YOU, lives with you

Splitting tax refunds is not a great thing, either

Being married, you cannot file HOH: you may file MFJ or MFS

And being married, your new wife has those two options, also

You and wife file jointly, you do not carry each other as dependents--very rare situation where spouse can claim spouse as dependent

Depending on the type of disability, it is probably not taxed

If wife receives SSI, she needs to report her marriage and your presence in household and income, or she is committing fraud and will have to repay it--they are starting to cross-reference marriage licenses; SSI is welfare, and means-based. SSDI is not, and may be partially taxed. Both are administered by Social Security, althoug SSI is not part of SS.

Filing MFJ is generally the MOST favorable tax filing status

You need to go back and look at your new wife's paperwork very, very carefully.

Many people confuse social security disability income (ssdi) with social security supplemental income (SSI).

If your new wife is getting SSDI, her income will continue, some or all of it may be taxed on your joint return, depending on how much other income the two of you have.

If your new wife is getting SSI, she needs to contact the SSA and give them all of the updated information. Her SSI is based on need and household income. With your income in the picture, she may no longer be eligible to get it. (For example, to get SSI, she had to have less than $2000 in assets when she was single; once she got married, the two of you have to have less than $3000 of assets.)

As for filing next year, congratulations, you are married. Your only valid filing options are MFJ with your new wife or MFS without her. If you file MFS and she has $0 taxable income, theoretically you can claim her exemption, but this is not the same as claiming a dependent. (Mathematically it is because a spouse's exemption amount is the same as a dependent's.)

As others have stated, HOH is no longer an option.

This year you will not be able to file HOH. Rather, you will need to file MFJ or MFS. MFJ is more advantageous for most, but you should crunch the numbers both ways to make sure.

The situation with your child is more complex, and the custodial parent (the parent with whom the child spends more than half the nights) can claim the child (unless the custodial parent agrees to let the other claim the child via Form 8332). Note that an exact 50/50 split causes no one to be a custodial parent.

As far as the disability goes, you mention SSI in your title. SSI is not taxable, however, SSI is a means test program. Your income and assets may well have an affect on her eligibility for SSI. You should be sure she has reported this change to her case worker in order to avoid repayment issues.

You can legally only claim head of household if your daughter stays with you MORE than half the nights of the year.

A spouse is never claimed as a dependent, but you cal file a joint return with her. And you're right, SSI is not reported on a tax return. She needs to report the marriage and your income to SSI though, since that looks at HOUSEHOLD income.

Congrats on your marriage.

You will filed married, either separately or jointly. You can NEVER claim your spouse as a dependent (you get an added exemption on a joint return). You cannot file HoH. If her SSI is taxable (unlikely), it counts as income.

I don't think you can file head of household if you are married. That is for single parents or people who care for their sick relatives or something. (When I was a single parent, I filed as head of household but then when I got married, I filed as married)

Seems like you should ask an accountant for the best and most accurate answers to your questions.

you will file married now that you are

the disability of your new wife is not taxable, however if this is SSI as you indicate, she may lose that entirely

married!

you are married so you MUST file that way. A spouse is never a "dependent" she is your spouse.