Skip to main content
Best answer by DoninGA

A spouse cannot be claimed as a dependent.  You should be filing as Married Filing Jointly even if one spouse has little or no income.  You receive the highest standard deduction of $12,600 and you each receive a personal exemption of $4,050

2 replies

DoninGA
DoninGAAnswer
Employee
June 5, 2019

A spouse cannot be claimed as a dependent.  You should be filing as Married Filing Jointly even if one spouse has little or no income.  You receive the highest standard deduction of $12,600 and you each receive a personal exemption of $4,050

June 5, 2019
No.
See page 11 of IRS Publication 501 which says:

“Your spouse is never considered your dependent.”

You can find IRS Pub 501 at this link:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

You can file as married filing jointly even if one of you has little or no income.