my wife and I do not live together

Hello Steven, 

Thank you for participating today!!

As I understand your question, you would like to know how not living together with a spouse might affect your taxes and filing status? 

Your marital status is determined as of December 31 of the year.  So, if you are married on Dec 31, you are considered married for the entire year.  

If I make the assumption that you are married with no children, your filing options would be MFJ (married filing joint) or MFS (married filing single).  Generally speaking, MFJ is usually better as there are more favorable tax rates.   There is no requirement that states both spouses must live together.   You both have to agree to file together. 

If I make the assumption that you are married and there are one or more children, that situation can be a little different.   Here is an example:

Let's say you and your spouse have one child that lives with you AND you and your spouse have not lived together for the last 6 months of the year (very important).  Then, you may qualify to file as HOH (head of household) because you have a dependent child.   Your spouse would have to file MFS.  

Another instance would be if there are two children and one child lived with each of you, and you did not live together for the last 6 months of the year.   If each of you had your own household with a qualifying child, you both could file as HOH.  There are some qualifications for filing as HOH. I will provide a link below.  

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/family/guide-to-filing-taxes-as-head-of-household/L4Nx6DYu9