<prompt> Human: We bought a house in May and got married in September and we live in Illinois. Id like to file Single as I can take advantage of the bigger itemized deductions such as real estate taxes and mortgage interest while my wife will take the standard deduction. That way, we can deduct more from our taxes instead of taking two standard deductions in a MFJ return. Otherwise if I itemize on a MFJ return, I would have less deductions than the two standard deductions. So are we able to file two single returns for 2016 since most of the year we werent married?  <response>: No you cant file single- Its your status as of Dec 31st that matters. 