What are the qualifying surviving spouse rules?

What this status is and is not

If your spouse died in 2025, you can use married filing jointly for 2025 if you otherwise qualify. The year of death is the last year you can file jointly with your deceased spouse. The following two years you may be able to file as a qualifying surviving spouse. The publication's example: if your spouse died in 2024 and you have not remarried, you may be able to use the status for 2025 and 2026. It entitles you to the joint return tax rates and the highest standard deduction amount if you do not itemize, but it is not a joint return. You use the married filing jointly column of the Tax Table, check the Qualifying surviving spouse box, and enter the qualifying child's name if the child is not listed as a dependent.

The tests, one by one

You must meet every one of these for the tax year: you were entitled to file a joint return for the year your spouse died, whether or not you actually did; your spouse died in one of the two earlier years and you did not remarry before the end of the year; you have a child or stepchild, not a foster child, whom you can claim as a dependent; the child lived in your home all year apart from temporary absences; and you paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.

The child test has a built-in allowance. You still qualify if you could claim the child as a dependent except that the child had gross income of $5,200 or more, the child filed a joint return, or you could be claimed as a dependent on someone else's return. Temporary absences count as time at home when caused by illness, education, business, vacation, military service or detention in a juvenile facility, if it is reasonable to assume the person will return.

Birth, death, adoption and kidnapping

The status is still available if the child was born or died during the year, as long as you provided more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the child's main home for the whole part of the year the child was alive. A child adopted by you or lawfully placed with you for adoption in the year is considered to have lived with you all year if your main home was the child's main home for the entire time since adoption or placement. For a kidnapped child, you can still qualify if law enforcement presumes a kidnapping by a non-family member, the child lived with you for more than half of the part of the year before the kidnapping, and you would have qualified otherwise. That treatment runs until the year the child is determined dead or would have turned 18.

Worked example

Your spouse died in 2023 and you have not remarried. For 2023 you were entitled to file jointly. For 2024 and 2025 you continue to keep up a home for your child, whom you can claim as a dependent, so you can file as a qualifying surviving spouse for both years. After 2025, you can file as head of household if you qualify. Type those years into the checker above: a 2023 return returns the joint-return message, 2024 and 2025 pass, and 2026 does not. Remarriage before year-end, or a child who was a foster child only, ends eligibility for that year.

Why it matters: the numbers

In the 2025 Table 6, qualifying surviving spouse has the same standard deduction as married filing jointly, $31,500, compared with $23,625 for head of household and $15,750 for single. In Table 1, the filing threshold is $31,500 if you are under 65 and $33,100 if you are 65 or older. Compare other statuses in the standard deduction calculator, and see the head of household checker for what applies after the two years.

Common mistakes

The most common errors are using the status in the year of death, when joint filing is the choice; using it for a third year; claiming it with only a foster child; and forgetting that you must have paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home. A stepchild counts, a foster child does not. If your spouse died before filing a return for the year of death, you can still choose married filing jointly for that year, with an executor or administrator signing for the decedent, or you if none is appointed.

Sources

• IRS Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information (2025): Qualifying Surviving Spouse (Eligibility rules, Death or birth, Adopted child, Kidnapped child); Marital Status (Spouse died during the year); Keeping Up a Home; Table 1; Table 6. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 501 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar limits and dates in this publication are for 2025; check the current publication and form instructions for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.