What is ‘Joint Return’
A U.S. income tax return filed on behalf of a married couple, resulting in a combined tax liability. Married taxpayers can choose to file two separate tax returns or a joint tax return. The joint return is often referred to as married filing jointly (MFJ). In order to file a joint return in any given year, the couple must be legally married on or before the last day of the year, and both spouses must agree to file a joint return.
Explaining ‘Joint Return’
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) states, “If you and your spouse decide to file a joint return, your tax may be lower than your combined tax for the other filing statuses. Also, your standard deduction (if you do not itemize deductions) may be higher, and you may qualify for tax benefits that do not apply to other filing statuses.” Both spouses report all income, deductions and credits on a joint tax return, and both spouses must sign the tax return. If one spouse dies during the year, the surviving spouse can still file a joint return for that year. During subsequent years, the surviving spouse can file as a surviving spouse, as head of household or as a single taxpayer. If taxpayers divorce at any point during the year, they are considered unmarried for that entire year and cannot elect “married filing jointly” as their filing status.
Further Reading
- Extreme value dependence in financial markets: Diagnostics, models, and financial implications – academic.oup.com [PDF]
- Cost of capital, discounting and relational contracting: endogenous optimal return and duration for joint investment projects – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- The effects of international joint ventures on shareholder wealth – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
- Information asymmetry, adverse selection and joint-ventures: Theory and evidence – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Joint venture investments and the market value of the firm – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Asymmetric information and joint venture performance: Theory and evidence for domestic and international joint ventures – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
- Stock market views of corporate multinationalism: Some evidence from announcements of international joint ventures – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Investment opportunities, free cash flow and market reaction to international joint ventures – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Big data, computational science, economics, finance, marketing, management, and psychology: connections – www.mdpi.com [PDF]
