Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: IRC §7703(a) determines marital status as of the close of the taxable year. A divorce final on 31 December makes you unmarried for the entire year; one final on 2 January leaves you married for all of the prior year. Separately, §7703(b) lets a still-married parent be treated as unmarried if three conditions are met.
The year-end rule
The statute is unusually blunt: whether you are married is decided at the close of the year, except that if a spouse dies during the year the determination is made at the time of death. And someone “legally separated from his spouse under a decree of divorce or of separate maintenance shall not be considered as married.”
Which makes the finalisation date a tax variable. Where a decree lands within days of year end and the two filing outcomes differ materially, that is worth raising with counsel while the date is still movable. It is a genuine planning point and one of very few in divorce that is purely administrative.
The abandoned-spouse rule, for people still legally married
Section 7703(b) treats a married individual as not married where all three hold:
| Condition |
|---|
| Files separately, and maintains as their home a household that is for more than half the year the principal place of abode of a child |
| Furnishes over half the cost of maintaining that household |
| The spouse is not a member of that household during the last six months of the year |
All three are required. The third is the one that usually decides it, and it is why the date of separation — not the date of filing — often determines whether this is available.
This matters more than it sounds, because head-of-household status does not move with Form 8332 and stays with the parent who meets these tests.
Sources
IRC §1041(a), (b), (c) and Temp. Reg. §1.1041-1T(b) Q&A-7; §414(p); §72(t)(2)(C) and §72(t)(3)(A); §408(d)(6); §121(a), (b), (d)(3); §7703(a) and (b); §152(e); §2(b)(1)(A)(i); §32(c)(3)(A); §21(e)(5); the repeal of §§71 and 215 by Pub. L. 115-97 §11051 and its effective-date note; IRS Form 8332 (current revision). All read July 2026.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and retirement-plan design turns on facts about your business and your other entities that no page can see. Every dollar limit referenced here is indexed and changes annually.
Related
Run your own dates: the divorce timing calculator computes both December-31 branches from your decree date and household facts — plus the COBRA clocks and the beneficiary forms your decree does not fix.