[Faith]

I'd love advice from any of you who have divorced or are going through a divorce.  How did you file your taxes in the middle of it all?  Married/joint or married/separate?  I've been advised by an accountant friend to file separately for protective reasons (we own a small business), but this would mean fighting with H about who gets to deduct the kids and other matters.  It's also a higher tax rate I guess.  I hardly made any money working part time last year, so would likely get a refund if taxed on my income alone I think.

There are constantly awful, emotionally-charged decisions to be made and here is one more I am completely uneducated about.     I'd really appreciate any input from someone who's been there.  Thank you!!

[Dontgiveup]

We were married 6 months of the year and divorced 6 months when we filed last year.  We went to our CPA together, but filed separately.  We own property together post divorce and I gave the deduction to my ex-wife.  It wasn't a big deal in our case, but we have not had any issues or disagreements about finances.

[unbroken]

We're not divorced.  Our accountant advises us to file jointly.  I'm not aware of any protection by filing separately.  You can have your accountant calculate it both ways and see which one turns out the best.  Perhaps you can agree to split the difference.

[Covenant for Life]

We were married for 9 months of 2011 and divorced for 3 months.  However, my sister  -who is an attorney, but not a tax expert - looked some things up and told me that we could not file married if the divorce was final anytime during the year of the tax filing.  Since I totally pay the mortgage and the other house related expenses myself  - except that my H pays half of the property taxes - I am entitled to file as head of household which lowers my tax rate and increases my standard deduction.  My H and I are still co-owners of our home as well as have stock options and RSU's through my H's company - which are all still marital assets.  So, the filing will be complicated, I am sure.

We have been separated since March 2008 when H moved out and filed married jointly for the three years that we were separated.  That tends to give most people the best tax advantage.  My H wants to still do the filing for both of us, but I am leaning towards paying an expert to do it since it will be complicated and I am not so sure that I want my H privy to whatever return I have coming since he may argue that since we were still married for 3/4 of the year some of my return should go to him.  And, since he got the divorce that HE wanted - unbiblical as well as against my will - my feeling is that I owe him none of any return I may have coming.  We have both spent thousands on useless attorney fees so in my estimation he has already spent years of future tax returns.