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Qualifying Surviving Spouse: Filing Status and Dependents (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Qualifying Surviving Spouse” within filing status and dependents. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 501 (2025), Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

You must determine your filing status before you can determine whether you must file a tax return, your standard deduction (discussed later), and your tax. You also use your filing status to determine whether you are eligible to claim certain other deductions and credits.

There are five filing statuses.

  • Single.

  • Married filing jointly.

  • Married filing separately.

  • Head of household.

  • Qualifying surviving spouse.

Qualifying Surviving Spouse

If your spouse died in 2025, you can use married filing jointly as your filing status for 2025 if you otherwise qualify to use that status. The year of death is the last year for which you can file jointly with your deceased spouse. See Married Filing Jointly, earlier.

You may be eligible to use qualifying surviving spouse as your filing status for 2 years following the year your spouse died. For example, if your spouse died in 2024 and you haven’t remarried, you may be able to use this filing status for 2025 and 2026. The rules for using this filing status are explained in detail here.

This filing status entitles you to use joint return tax rates and the highest standard deduction amount (if you don’t itemize deductions). It doesn’t entitle you to file a joint return.

How to file.

Select this filing status by checking the “Qualifying surviving spouse” box on the Filing Status line near the top of Form 1040 or 1040-SR. If the child who qualifies you for this filing status isn’t claimed as your dependent in the Dependents section of Form 1040 or 1040-SR, enter the child’s name in the entry space below the filing status checkboxes. Use the Married filing jointly column of the Tax Table, or Section B of the Tax Computation Worksheet, to figure your tax.

Table 4. Who Is a Qualifying Person Qualifying You To File as Head of Household?1

    Caution See the text of this publication for the other requirements you must meet to claim head of household filing status.
    IF the person is your . . . AND . . . THEN that person is . . .
    qualifying child (such as a son, daughter, or grandchild who lived with you more than half the year and meets certain other tests)2 the child is single a qualifying person, whether or not the child meets the citizen or resident test.
    the child is married and you can claim the child as a dependent a qualifying person.
    the child is married and you can’t claim the child as a dependent not a qualifying person.3
    qualifying relative4 who is your father or mother you can claim your parent as a dependent5 a qualifying person.6
    you can’t claim your parent as a dependent not a qualifying person.
    qualifying relative4 other than your father or mother (such as a grandparent, brother, or sister who meets certain tests) your relative lived with you more than half the year, and your relative is related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who don’t have to live with you, later, and you can claim your relative as a dependent5 a qualifying person.
    your relative didn’t live with you more than half the year not a qualifying person.
    your relative isn’t related to you in one of the ways listed under Relatives who don’t have to live with you, later, and is your qualifying relative only because your relative lived with you all year as a member of your household not a qualifying person.
    you can’t claim your relative as a dependent not a qualifying person.
    1 A person can’t qualify more than one taxpayer to use the head of household filing status for the year.
    2 The term “qualifying child” is defined under Dependents, later. Note: If you are a noncustodial parent, the term “qualifying child” for head of household filing status doesn’t include a child who is your qualifying child only because of the rules described under Children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) under Qualifying Child, later. If you are the custodial parent and those rules apply, the child is generally your qualifying child for head of household filing status even though the child isn’t a qualifying child you can claim as a dependent.
    3 This person is a qualifying person if the only reason you can’t claim the person as a dependent is that you can be claimed as a dependent on another taxpayer’s return.
    4 The term “qualifying relative” is defined under Dependents, later.
    5 If you can claim a person as a dependent only because of a multiple support agreement, that person isn’t a qualifying person. See Multiple Support Agreement, later.
    6 See Special rule for parent, earlier.

    Eligibility rules.

    You are eligible to file your 2025 return as a qualifying surviving spouse if you meet all the following tests.

    1. You were entitled to file a joint return with your spouse for the year your spouse died. It doesn’t matter whether you actually filed a joint return.

    2. Your spouse died in 2023 or 2024 and you didn’t remarry before the end of 2025.

    3. You have a child or stepchild (not a foster child) whom you can claim as a dependent or could claim as a dependent except that, for 2025:

      1. The child had gross income of $5,200 or more,

      2. The child filed a joint return, or

      3. You could be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return.

      If the child isn’t claimed as your dependent in the Dependents section on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, enter the child’s name in the entry space below the filing status checkboxes. If you don’t enter the name, it will take us longer to process your return.

    4. This child lived in your home all year, except for temporary absences. See Temporary absences, earlier, under Head of Household. There are also exceptions, described later, for a child who was born or died during the year and for a kidnapped child.

    5. You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year. See Keeping Up a Home, earlier, under Head of Household.

    Example.

    Your spouse died in 2023 and you haven’t remarried. During 2024 and 2025, you continued to keep up a home for you and your child who lives with you and whom you can claim as a dependent. For 2023, you were entitled to file a joint return for you and your deceased spouse. For 2024 and 2025, you can file as a qualifying surviving spouse. After 2025, you can file as head of household if you qualify.

    Death or birth.

    You may be eligible to file as a qualifying surviving spouse if the child who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies during the year. You must have provided more than half of the cost of keeping up a home that was the child’s main home during the entire part of the year the child was alive.

    Adopted child.

    You may be eligible to file as a qualifying surviving spouse if the child who qualifies you for this filing status was adopted by you in 2025 or was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption by you in 2025. The child is considered to have lived with you for all of 2025 if your main home was this child’s main home for the entire time since this child was adopted or placed with you in 2025.

    Kidnapped child.

    You may be eligible to file as a qualifying surviving spouse even if the child who qualifies you for this filing status has been kidnapped. You can claim qualifying surviving spouse filing status if all the following statements are true.

    1. The child is presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who isn’t a member of your family or the child’s family.

    2. In the year of the kidnapping, the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year before the kidnapping.

    3. In the year of the child’s return, the child lived with you for more than half the part of the year following the date of the child’s return.

    4. You would have qualified for qualifying surviving spouse filing status if the child had not been kidnapped.

    . As mentioned earlier, the filing status qualifying surviving spouse is available for only 2 years following the year your spouse died..

    Using the guidance

    Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

    Sources and further reading

    The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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