In practice, the default assumption seems to be that a couple will file jointly for the final year of the marriage.

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The couple had to file seven years of amended returns, withdraw the contributions and pay thousands of dollars in penalties and interest.

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Consequently, as an unmarried couple, they were ineligible to file jointly.

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Washington (CNN) -- Maryland's highest court has ruled that a lesbian couple married out of state can legally file for divorce, even though Maryland's own same-sex marriage law does not take effect until next year.

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The "Marriage Tax Elimination Act" would allow married couples to choose whether to file separately or as a married couple, to gain the best tax advantage.

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Most Social Security planning focuses on married couples' ability to "file and suspend, " a strategy to help a couple get the most total benefits.

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Accountants often prepare joint income tax returns for a couple as a reaction, without advising Wife in our example that she could file separately, or of the consequences to her of filing a joint return.

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Over the last couple of years, we kinda forgot about the drama that surrounded peer-to-peer file-sharing.

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The OTC lists a couple of thousand companies which are of interest to institutional investor, but since they are not required to file anything with the SEC, it is difficult to get data about them, said David A. Frankel, chief marketing officer of EDGAR Online.

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