Eligibility comes first
The IRS identifies five filing statuses. Your circumstances determine which ones you may use; the most attractive number does not establish eligibility. Filing status can affect deductions, credits and tax. Use the official IRS filing-status guidance when your circumstances are uncertain.
How this comparison is arranged
For a supported married profile, Tax PreCheck shows a joint scenario, your separate scenario, your spouse’s separate scenario and the two separate tax amounts combined. Each scenario applies its own supported rules. Your spouse’s entries stay visible in a separate result, with their own tax, payments and estimated cash outcome.
Verify shared payments
Do not place the same joint estimated payment or applied overpayment in both separate returns. Confirm the credited ownership and any required allocation or transfer using the agency’s rules. An unknown household allocation blocks the affected separate settlements, even when one spouse has entered zero in their own field.
Know when the comparison stops
This release does not resolve community-property allocations, dependents, head-of-household eligibility, surviving-spouse rules or every marriage-related credit restriction. A displayed column may be unavailable even though another column has a number. Read Why is this different? and the coverage limits; do not interpret an unavailable scenario as zero tax.