My brother is married and his wife is wanting to file without him and her claim the kids. Is this possible?

My brother has been the one with the job and has made all the money. She hasn't paid in any taxes. I just need to know if she can do this. He has always claimed the kids.My brother is married and his wife is wanting to file without him and her claim the kids. Is this possible?
If they are married, they have two options for filing:





-married, filing jointly or


-married, filing separately





She can NOT file as single.My brother is married and his wife is wanting to file without him and her claim the kids. Is this possible?
The question would be why does she want to do this? Technically she ';could';, but it makes no sense. If she thinks she is going to cheat the system for the earned income credit she's got another thought coming if she hasn't earned any income to begin with. Also, if she has no income to report, she has no reason to file. Your brother had better talk to his wife and find out what she's up to before he winds up with the tax man knocking on the door.
Married people are allowed to file a joint return, or are allowed to file as married filing separately. If they don't both agree to file jointly, then it's separately since both signatures are needed on a joint return. And if they file separately, either can claim the kids or they can split them, they just can't both claim the same kid. So yes, it's possible.





But you say she didn't have a job? What does she think she'd gain by doing this? She wouldn't be eligible for any money back if she files separately, and he'd end up paying more tax than on a joint return. She'd be essentially wasting the money they could otherwise have gotten. Makes no sense at all. She might think that if she files separately, she'd get some kind of large refund - she wouldn't get any refund if she didn't have any income. EIC isn't available to someone filing as married filing separately - and with no earned income, she wouldn't be eligible for EIC anyway.





You say he has always claimed the kids - don't they usually file a joint return? If not, it's costing them money every year.
If he has been claiming the kids I hope he wasn't claiming Head of Household. As has been stated the only two LEGAL filing statuses are Married filing Joint and Married Filing Separate. Married Filling Separate is the absolute worst way to file.