My client is Married Filing Separately and does not qualify for Head of Household status. He did not live with spouse any during last six months of year. He wants to itemize, but must he worry about whether spouse itemizes also?
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No
He can itemize. If one spouse itemizes, both must if filing MFS (or is it that the standard deduction becomes $0 for the other?) He could be gracious and notify his spouse that he's itemizing. He only has to worry about what his spouse is doing if he himself wants to take the standard deduction. -
Several years ago.....
I had a situation several years ago where a person came to me to prepare their return (didn't prepare due to numerous "red flags"....if you know what I mean). He wanted to itemize and I told him that his spouse, who had self-prepared her own return, would need to itemize too. He indicated his spouse ALWAYS took the standard deduction because the spouse didn't have enough to itemize. I told this fella he could either take the standard deduction too or his spouse would need to amend her return and itemize. He said they had done their taxes this same way for several years and the IRS never sent them a letter. On her copy of her return, she did list his name and SS# indicating "Married Filing Separately."
Just out of curiosity, has anyone else encountered this? Does the IRS not flag these returns? The same guy was trying to take a huge "donation" for firewood donated to his minister (who just happened to be his Dad)....I showed him the door (and not the one to Heaven!)
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