How to File Taxes as Married Filing Jointly if Your Husband Was Unemployed

You can file a joint tax return even if one of you didn't work.

If you earned income during the year, you'll need to file taxes, even if that income was in the form of unemployment benefits. As a married person, you can choose your filing status for tax purposes. You can file as married filing jointly or married filing separately. Even if only one of you had income during the year, you can still file a joint return. Married filing jointly usually results in the most tax savings for married couples and allows you to maximize your deductions by combining them.

Things You'll Need

• W-2s
• 1099s
• Receipts for deductions

Instructions

1. Indicate on the tax return that you are filing as married filing jointly by checking this box under filing status.

2. Record any wages you received during the year, as listed on your W2s, under the income section of the Form 1040. This includes wages you earned and wages your husband may have received before he lost his job.

3. Record any unemployment benefits your husband received during the year. For the purposes of taxes, the IRS treats unemployment benefits as income. He should receive a form 1099-G from the unemployment commission, showing the total amount he received in unemployment benefits and any taxes withheld.

4. Record your deductions. If you itemize deductions and you are married filing jointly, you can deduct the cost of looking for work, as long as that cost exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income. This includes the cost of printing resumes, parking and tolls when applying for jobs, classes he took to improve his skills, travel expenses if he traveled to job interviews, and other costs associated with trying to find another job.

5. Take the standard deduction if you do not have enough deductions to itemize. Subtract deductions from income to determine adjusted gross income.

6. Consult the tax tables to determine the tax you owe.

7. Subtract any credits to which you're entitled, such as child care tax credit or earned income credit. Couples who elect to file as married filing separately will not be able to take all of these credits.

8. Record the tax withheld from your paychecks. Include any quarterly tax payments you made, or taxes withheld from his unemployment checks. Subtract these amounts from the tax owed to figure the tax due.

Tips & Warnings

• If your husband did not pay taxes on the unemployment benefits that he collected, you will owe taxes on those benefits.

References

• IRS.gov: 1040EZ
• IRS.gov: Publication 501
• Kipllinger; The Most Overlooked Tax Deductions; Kevin McCormally; December 2010