Which is better – head of household or joint?
The six month rule is for people who split up, not for people away temporarily which is what a deployment is. And leaving at the END of July wouldn’t qualify as the last six months of the year anyway, 6/30 would be the cutoff. Joint tax rates are better than head of household anyway. So if some preparer had you file before as head of household she didn’t do you any favor – you almost surely lost money by doing that. I hope she isn’t still preparing your tax – she isn’t very competent at it. Not sure what you mean by your wife had no interest. If you mean no income, then you would definitely end up losing money, both on your tax return and on the upcoming rebate, if you filed as head of household which would be illegal anyway. You’d only get a rebate for you, not for each of you. And on your tax return, you wouldn’t get her exemption, and would get a standard deduction of $7850 as head of household – you get $10,700 on a joint return. File a joint return.
