Questions about seperation and filing taxes ... and not moving immediately

The federal tax law in this situation is very clear: Your marital status on 31 December is your marital status for the year. You CAN file under "married, filing separately", but I would NOT recommend it unless you have some kind of legal arrangement about the disposition of your assets already in place (not a "handshake" deal, a real piece of paper, usually drawn up by a lawyer, that very clearly delineates who owns what for tax purposes). Married Filling Separately is THE most expensive way to file for taxes. You can do your taxes both ways (or have a tax preparer do it), but pretty much the only way Married Filing Separately is cheaper than Married Filing Jointly is if one of you DOESN'T work (or if your income difference is so large that the two of your fall into different tax brackets). You didn't mention whether you own a house together, which again makes a huge difference when determining Separate vs. Jointly, especially if your title declares you Tenants in the Entirety. ===== As for cohabitation during legal separation, I highly recommend against it for two big reasons: (1) it merely drags out the process of the two of you finding a new life AND a new way of life and all of the happy horse hockey that entails, and (2) Unless one or both of you are completely turned off by the other, it's too much of a temptation to slip back into old habits (and old sexual positions). If you've already filed for legal separation and someone finds out the two of you are cohabitating in more ways than one, you can kiss all the work you've done toward filing for divorce AND all the money you've spent thus far goodbye, because the law in most states declares that resumption of normal marital relationships renders the separation agreement (and any other attached agreements, like custody, financial disposition, etc.) null and void.=====Take-home messages: (1) if you're still legally married, file jointly; (2) legal separation means just that: SEPARATION. Good luck...

I think you can file separately. But I have to say living together is NOT a good idea. I recently tried co-habitating with my husband and it only made things worse to where I had no choice but to leave and force the separation. If possible, one of you should leave to give you both some space. It's not important which one of you leaves. It only matters that you distance yourself from one another.

I think the answer is yes to both. But you should double check that with a lawyer just to find out if it's the best solution for you. I'm not an accountant, so I'm not sure what is best for you regarding filing status. You can live anywhere while the divorce is going on. There aren't any laws about that I don't think.