Qualifying surviving spouse/RDP Filing status

You may use this filing status for 2 years after the year of your spouse’s death if the qualifications are met. This allows you to keep the benefits of Married/Registered Domestic Partner (RDP) filing jointly.

You qualify if all of the following apply:

• Your spouse/RDP died in 2023 or 2024 and you did not remarry or enter into another registered domestic partnership in 2025
• You have either a:
  • Child
  • Stepchild
  • Adopted child
  • Foster child whom you claimed as a dependent
• The child lived in your home for all of 2025. Temporary absences, such as for vacation or school, count as time lived in the home
• You paid over half the cost of keeping up your home for the child
• You could have filed a joint tax return with your spouse/RDP the year he or she died, even if you did not actually do so

Filing requirement

Visit Resident, Part-year resident and Nonresident taxation or Military for your filing requirement.