If your spouse died in 2016, read this before using Table 1 or Table 2 to find whether you must file a 2016 return. Consider your spouse to be 65 or older at the end of 2016 only if he or she was 65 or older at the time of death. Even if your spouse was born before January 2, 1952, he or she isn't considered 65 or older at the end of 2016 unless he or she was 65 or older at the time of death.

A person is considered to reach age 65 on the day before his or her 65th birthday.

If you are preparing a return for someone who died in 2016, read this before using Table 1 or Table 2. Consider the taxpayer to be 65 or older at the end of 2016 only if he or she was 65 or older at the time of death. Even if the taxpayer was born before January 2, 1952, he or she isn't considered 65 or older at the end of 2016 unless he or she was 65 or older at the time of death.

A person is considered to reach age 65 on the day before his or her 65th birthday.

Both of you must use the same accounting period, but you can use different accounting methods.

Both of you may be held responsible, jointly and individually, for the tax and any interest or penalty due on your joint return. This means that if one spouse doesn't pay the tax due, the other may have to. Or, if one spouse doesn't report the correct tax, both spouses may be responsible for any additional taxes assessed by the IRS. One spouse may be held responsible for all the tax due even if all the income was earned by the other spouse.

You may want to file separately if:

You may be held jointly and individually responsible for any tax, interest, and penalties due on a joint return filed before your divorce. This responsibility may apply even if your divorce decree states that your former spouse will be responsible for any amounts due on previously filed joint returns.

In some cases, one spouse may be relieved of joint responsibility for tax, interest, and penalties on a joint return for items of the other spouse that were incorrectly reported on the joint return. You can ask for relief no matter how small the liability.

There are three types of relief available.

You must file Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief, to request relief from joint responsibility. Pub. 971, Innocent Spouse Relief, explains the kinds of relief and who may qualify for them.

For a return to be considered a joint return, both spouses generally must sign the return.

If your spouse died before signing the return, the executor or administrator must sign the return for your spouse. If neither you nor anyone else has been appointed as executor or administrator, you can sign the return for your spouse and enter "Filing as surviving spouse" in the area where you sign the return.

If your spouse is away from home, you should prepare the return, sign it, and send it to your spouse to sign so it can be filed on time.

If your spouse can't sign because of injury or disease and tells you to sign for him or her, you can sign your spouse's name in the proper space on the return followed by the words "By (your name), Husband (or Wife)." Be sure to also sign in the space provided for your signature. Attach a dated statement, signed by you, to the return. The statement should include the form number of the return you are filing, the tax year, and the reason your spouse can't sign, and should state that your spouse has agreed to your signing for him or her.

If you are the guardian of your spouse who is mentally incompetent, you can sign the return for your spouse as guardian.

You can sign a joint return for your spouse if your spouse can't sign because he or she is serving in a combat zone (such as the Persian Gulf area, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, or Afghanistan), even if you don't have a power of attorney or other statement. Attach a signed statement to your return explaining that your spouse is serving in a combat zone. For more information on special tax rules for persons who are serving in a combat zone, or who are in missing status as a result of serving in a combat zone, see Pub. 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide.

If your spouse can't sign the joint return for any other reason, you can sign for your spouse only if you are given a valid power of attorney (a legal document giving you permission to act for your spouse). Attach the power of attorney (or a copy of it) to your tax return. You can use Form 2848.

Generally, a married couple can't file a joint return if either one is a nonresident alien at any time during the tax year. However, if one spouse was a nonresident alien or dual-status alien who was married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien at the end of the year, the spouses can choose to file a joint return. If you do file a joint return, you and your spouse are both treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year. See chapter 1 of Pub. 519.

If your AGI on a separate return is lower than it would have been on a joint return, you may be able to deduct a larger amount for certain deductions that are limited by AGI, such as medical expenses.

You may not be able to deduct all or part of your contributions to a traditional IRA if you or your spouse were covered by an employee retirement plan at work during the year. Your deduction is reduced or eliminated if your income is more than a certain amount. This amount is much lower for married individuals who file separately and lived together at any time during the year. For more information, see How Much Can You Deduct? in chapter 1 of Pub. 590-A.

If you actively participated in a passive rental real estate activity that produced a loss, you generally can deduct the loss from your nonpassive income up to $25,000. This is called a special allowance. However, married persons filing separate returns who lived together at any time during the year can't claim this special allowance. Married persons filing separate returns who lived apart at all times during the year are each allowed a $12,500 maximum special allowance for losses from passive real estate activities. See Rental Activities in Pub. 925, Passive Activity and At-Risk Rules.

If you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin and file separately, your income may be considered separate income or community income for income tax purposes. See Pub. 555, Community Property.

A personal representative for a decedent can change from a joint return elected by the surviving spouse to a separate return for the decedent. The personal representative has 1 year from the due date (including extensions) of the return to make the change. See Pub. 559 for more information on filing income tax returns for a decedent.

You are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year and you don't choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse isn't a qualifying person for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as a head of household.

You are considered married if you choose to treat your spouse as a resident alien. See chapter 1 of Pub. 519.

Include in the cost of keeping up a home expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, insurance on the home, repairs, utilities, and food eaten in the home.

If you used payments you received under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or other public assistance programs to pay part of the cost of keeping up your home, you can't count them as money you paid. However, you must include them in the total cost of keeping up your home to figure if you paid over half the cost.

Don't include the cost of clothing, education, medical treatment, vacations, life insurance, or transportation. Also, don't include the rental value of a home you own or the value of your services or those of a member of your household.

Generally, the qualifying person must live with you for more than half of the year.

If your qualifying person is your father or mother, you may be eligible to file as head of household even if your father or mother doesn't live with you. However, you must be able to claim an exemption for your father or mother. Also, you must pay more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the main home for the entire year for your father or mother.

If you pay more than half the cost of keeping your parent in a rest home or home for the elderly, that counts as paying more than half the cost of keeping up your parent's main home.

You may be eligible to file as head of household even if the qualifying person who qualifies you for this filing status is born or dies during the year. To qualify you for head of household filing status, the qualifying person (as defined in Table 4) must be one of the following.

You and your qualifying person are considered to live together even if one or both of you are temporarily absent from your home due to special circumstances such as illness, education, business, vacation, military service, or detention in a juvenile facility. It must be reasonable to assume the absent person will return to the home after the temporary absence. You must continue to keep up the home during the absence.

You may be eligible to file as head of household even if the child who is your qualifying person has been kidnapped. You can claim head of household filing status if all the following statements are true.

This treatment applies for all years until the earliest of:

On a joint return, you can claim one exemption for yourself and one for your spouse.

If you file a separate return, you can claim an exemption for your spouse only if your spouse:

This is true even if the other taxpayer doesn't actually claim your spouse as a dependent.

You can claim an exemption for your spouse even if he or she is a nonresident alien. In that case, your spouse:

If you qualify for head of household filing status because you are considered unmarried, you can claim an exemption for your spouse if the conditions described in the preceding paragraph are satisfied.

To claim the exemption for your spouse, check the box on line 6b of Form 1040 or Form 1040A and enter the name of your spouse in the space to the right of the box. Enter the SSN or ITIN of your spouse in the space provided at the top of Form 1040 or Form 1040A.

If your spouse died during the year and you file a joint return for yourself and your deceased spouse, you generally can claim your spouse's exemption under the rules just explained in Joint return . If you file a separate return for the year, you may be able to claim your spouse's exemption under the rules just described in Separate return .

If you remarried during the year, you can't take an exemption for your deceased spouse.

If you are a surviving spouse without gross income and you remarry in the year your spouse died, you can be claimed as an exemption on both the final separate return of your deceased spouse and the separate return of your new spouse for that year. If you file a joint return with your new spouse, you can be claimed as an exemption only on that return.

If you obtained a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance during the year, you can't take your former spouse's exemption. This rule applies even if you provided all of your former spouse's support.

You can claim an exemption for a person who files a joint return if that person and his or her spouse file the joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

If you are a U.S. citizen or U.S. national who has legally adopted a child who isn't a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, or U.S. national, this test is met if the child lived with you as a member of your household all year. This exception also applies if the child was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Children usually are citizens or residents of the country of their parents.

If you were a U.S. citizen when your child was born, the child may be a U.S. citizen and meet this test even if the other parent was a nonresident alien and the child was born in a foreign country.

Foreign students brought to this country under a qualified international education exchange program and placed in American homes for a temporary period generally aren't U.S. residents and don't meet this test. You can't claim an exemption for them. However, if you provided a home for a foreign student, you may be able to take a charitable contribution deduction. See Expenses Paid for Student Living With You in Pub. 526, Charitable Contributions.

A U.S. national is an individual who, although not a U.S. citizen, owes his or her allegiance to the United States. U.S. nationals include American Samoans and Northern Mariana Islanders who chose to become U.S. nationals instead of U.S. citizens.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term "adopted child" includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

To be your qualifying child, a child who isn't permanently and totally disabled must be younger than you. However, if you are married filing jointly, the child must be younger than you or your spouse but doesn't have to be younger than both of you.

To qualify as a student, your child must be, during some part of each of any 5 calendar months of the year:

The 5 calendar months don't have to be consecutive.

A full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance.

A school can be an elementary school, junior or senior high school, college, university, or technical, trade, or mechanical school. However, an on-the-job training course, correspondence school, or school offering courses only through the Internet doesn't count as a school.

Students who work on "co-op" jobs in private industry as a part of a school's regular course of classroom and practical training are considered full-time students.

Your child is permanently and totally disabled if both of the following apply.

Your child is considered to have lived with you during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as:

A child who was born or died during the year is treated as having lived with you more than half the year if your home was the child's home more than half the time he or she was alive during the year. The same is true if the child lived with you more than half the year except for any required hospital stay following birth.

You may be able to claim an exemption for a child born alive during the year, even if the child lived only for a moment. State or local law must treat the child as having been born alive. There must be proof of a live birth shown by an official document, such as a birth certificate. The child must be your qualifying child or qualifying relative, and all the other tests to claim an exemption for a dependent must be met.

You can't claim an exemption for a stillborn child.

You can treat your child as meeting the residency test even if the child has been kidnapped, but both of the following statements must be true.

This treatment applies for all years until the earliest of:

In most cases, because of the residency test, a child of divorced or separated parents is the qualifying child of the custodial parent. However, the child will be treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent if all four of the following statements are true.

If statements (1) through (4) are all true, only the noncustodial parent can:

However, this doesn’t allow the noncustodial parent to claim head of household filing status, the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the exclusion for dependent care benefits, the earned income credit, or the health coverage tax credit. See Applying the tiebreaker rules to divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) , later.

The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncustodial parent.

If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the rest of the year.

A child is treated as living with a parent for a night if the child sleeps:

If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the parent with the higher adjusted gross income (AGI).

The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, the night of December 31, 2016, is treated as part of 2016.

If a child is emancipated under state law, the child is treated as not living with either parent. See Examples 5 and 6.

If a child wasn't with either parent on a particular night (because, for example, the child was staying at a friend's house), the child is treated as living with the parent with whom the child normally would have lived for that night, except for the absence. But if it can't be determined with which parent the child normally would have lived or if the child would not have lived with either parent that night, the child is treated as not living with either parent that night.

If, due to a parent's nighttime work schedule, a child lives for a greater number of days, but not nights, with the parent who works at night, that parent is treated as the custodial parent. On a school day, the child is treated as living at the primary residence registered with the school.

The custodial parent must use either Form 8332 or a similar statement (containing the same information required by the form) to make the written declaration to release the exemption to the noncustodial parent. The noncustodial parent must attach a copy of the form or statement to his or her tax return.

The exemption can be released for 1 year, for a number of specified years (for example, alternate years), or for all future years, as specified in the declaration.

If the divorce decree or separation agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, the noncustodial parent may be able to attach certain pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332. The decree or agreement must state all three of the following.

The noncustodial parent must attach all of the following pages of the decree or agreement to his or her tax return.

The noncustodial parent can't attach pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332 if the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008. The custodial parent must sign either Form 8332 or a similar statement whose only purpose is to release the custodial parent's claim to an exemption for a child, and the noncustodial parent must attach a copy to his or her return. The form or statement must release the custodial parent's claim to the child without any conditions. For example, the release must not depend on the noncustodial parent paying support.

The noncustodial parent must attach the required information even if it was filed with a return in an earlier year.

The custodial parent can revoke a release of claim to an exemption. For the revocation to be effective for 2016, the custodial parent must have given (or made reasonable efforts to give) written notice of the revocation to the noncustodial parent in 2015 or earlier. The custodial parent can use Part III of Form 8332 for this purpose and must attach a copy of the revocation to his or her return for each tax year he or she claims the child as a dependent as a result of the revocation.

If you remarry, the support provided by your new spouse is treated as provided by you.

This rule for divorced or separated parents also applies to parents who never married and lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

Payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a child placement agency are considered support provided by the agency. Similarly, payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a state or county are considered support provided by the state or county.

If you aren't in the trade or business of providing foster care and your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in caring for a foster child were mainly to benefit an organization qualified to receive deductible charitable contributions, the expenses are deductible as charitable contributions but aren't considered support you provided. For more information about the deduction for charitable contributions, see Pub. 526. If your unreimbursed expenses aren't deductible as charitable contributions, they may qualify as support you provided.

If you are in the trade or business of providing foster care, your unreimbursed expenses aren't considered support provided by you.

A scholarship received by a child who is a student isn't taken into account in determining whether the child provided more than half of his or her own support.

An exception to the joint return test applies if your child and his or her spouse file a joint return only to claim a refund of income tax withheld or estimated tax paid.

To determine which person can treat the child as a qualifying child to claim these six tax benefits, the following tiebreaker rules apply.

Subject to these tiebreaker rules, you and the other person may be able to choose which of you claims the child as a qualifying child.

If a child is treated as the qualifying child of the noncustodial parent under the rules described earlier for children of divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart), only the noncustodial parent can claim an exemption and the child tax credit for the child. However, only the custodial parent can claim the credit for child and dependent care expenses or the exclusion for dependent care benefits for the child, and only the custodial parent can treat the child as a dependent for the health coverage tax credit. Also, the noncustodial parent can't claim the child as a qualifying child for head of household filing status or the earned income credit. Instead, the custodial parent, if eligible, or other eligible person can claim the child as a qualifying child for those two benefits. If the child is the qualifying child of more than one person for these benefits, then the tiebreaker rules determine whether the custodial parent or another eligible person can treat the child as a qualifying child.

A child isn't the qualifying child of any other taxpayer and so may qualify as your qualifying relative if the child's parent (or other person for whom the child is defined as a qualifying child) isn't required to file an income tax return and either:

You may be able to claim your child as a dependent even if the child lives in Canada or Mexico. If the child doesn't live with you, the child doesn't meet the residency test to be your qualifying child. However, the child may still be your qualifying relative. If the persons the child does live with aren't U.S. citizens and have no U.S. gross income, those persons aren't "taxpayers," so the child isn't the qualifying child of any other taxpayer. If the child isn't the qualifying child of any other taxpayer, the child is your qualifying relative as long as the gross income test and the support test are met.

You can't claim as a dependent a child who lives in a foreign country other than Canada or Mexico, unless the child is a U.S. citizen, U.S. resident alien, or U.S. national. There is an exception for certain adopted children who lived with you all year. See Citizen or Resident Test , earlier.

A person related to you in any of the following ways doesn't have to live with you all year as a member of your household to meet this test.

Any of these relationships that were established by marriage aren't ended by death or divorce.

A foster child is an individual who is placed with you by an authorized placement agency or by judgment, decree, or other order of any court of competent jurisdiction.

If you file a joint return, the person can be related to either you or your spouse. Also, the person doesn't need to be related to the spouse who provides support.

For example, your spouse's uncle who receives more than half of his support from you may be your qualifying relative, even though he doesn't live with you. However, if you and your spouse file separate returns, your spouse's uncle can be your qualifying relative only if he lives with you all year as a member of your household.

A person is considered to live with you as a member of your household during periods of time when one of you, or both, are temporarily absent due to special circumstances such as:

If the person is placed in a nursing home for an indefinite period of time to receive constant medical care, the absence may be considered temporary.

A person who died during the year, but lived with you as a member of your household until death, will meet this test. The same is true for a child who was born during the year and lived with you as a member of your household for the rest of the year. The test is also met if a child lived with you as a member of your household except for any required hospital stay following birth.

If your dependent died during the year and you otherwise qualify to claim an exemption for the dependent, you can still claim the exemption.

A person doesn't meet this test if at any time during the year the relationship between you and that person violates local law.

An adopted child is always treated as your own child. The term "adopted child" includes a child who was lawfully placed with you for legal adoption.

Your cousin meets this test only if he or she lives with you all year as a member of your household. A cousin is a descendant of a brother or sister of your father or mother.

Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that isn't exempt from tax.

In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, gross income is the total net sales minus the cost of goods sold, plus any miscellaneous income from the business.

Gross receipts from rental property are gross income. Don't deduct taxes, repairs, or other expenses to determine the gross income from rental property.

Gross income includes a partner's share of the gross (not net) partnership income.

Gross income also includes all taxable unemployment compensation and certain scholarship and fellowship grants. Scholarships received by degree candidates and used for tuition, fees, supplies, books, and equipment required for particular courses generally aren't included in gross income. For more information about scholarships, see chapter 1 of Pub. 970.

Tax-exempt income, such as certain social security benefits, isn't included in gross income.

For purposes of the gross income test, the gross income of an individual who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year doesn't include income for services the individual performs at a sheltered workshop. The availability of medical care at the workshop must be the main reason for the individual's presence there. Also, the income must come solely from activities at the workshop that are incident to this medical care.

A "sheltered workshop" is a school that:

"Permanently and totally disabled" has the same meaning here as under Qualifying Child, earlier.

You figure whether you have provided more than half of a person's total support by comparing the amount you contributed to that person's support with the entire amount of support that person received from all sources. This includes support the person provided from his or her own funds.

You may find Worksheet 2 helpful in figuring whether you provided more than half of a person's support.

A person's own funds aren't support unless they are actually spent for support.

You can't include in your contribution to your child's support any support paid for by the child with the child's own wages, even if you paid the wages.

The year you provide the support is the year you pay for it, even if you do so with borrowed money that you repay in a later year.

If you use a fiscal year to report your income, you must provide more than half of the dependent's support for the calendar year in which your fiscal year begins.

The part of the allotment contributed by the government and the part taken out of your military pay are both considered provided by you in figuring whether you provide more than half of the support. If your allotment is used to support persons other than those you name, you can take the exemptions for them if they otherwise qualify.

These allowances are treated the same way as dependency allotments in figuring support. The allotment of pay and the tax-exempt basic allowance for quarters are both considered as provided by you for support.

In figuring a person's total support, include tax-exempt income, savings, and borrowed amounts used to support that person. Tax-exempt income includes certain social security benefits, welfare benefits, nontaxable life insurance proceeds, Armed Forces family allotments, nontaxable pensions, and tax-exempt interest.

If spouses each receive benefits that are paid by one check made out to both of them, half of the total paid is considered to be for the support of each spouse, unless they can show otherwise.

If a child receives social security benefits and uses them toward his or her own support, the benefits are considered as provided by the child.

Benefits provided by the state to a needy person generally are considered support provided by the state. However, payments based on the needs of the recipient won't be considered as used entirely for that person's support if it is shown that part of the payments weren't used for that purpose.

Payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a child placement agency are considered support provided by the agency. See Foster care payments and expenses , earlier.

If you make a lump-sum advance payment to a home for the aged to take care of your relative for life and the payment is based on that person's life expectancy, the amount of support you provide each year is the lump-sum payment divided by the relative's life expectancy. The amount of support you provide also includes any other amounts you provided during the year.

If you provide a person with lodging, you are considered to provide support equal to the fair rental value of the room, apartment, house, or other shelter in which the person lives. Fair rental value includes a reasonable allowance for the use of furniture and appliances, and for heat and other utilities that are provided.

Fair rental value is the amount you could reasonably expect to receive from a stranger for the same kind of lodging. It is used instead of actual expenses such as taxes, interest, depreciation, paint, insurance, utilities, and the cost of furniture and appliances. In some cases, fair rental value may be equal to the rent paid.

If you provide the total lodging, the amount of support you provide is the fair rental value of the room the person uses, or a share of the fair rental value of the entire dwelling if the person has use of your entire home. If you don't provide the total lodging, the total fair rental value must be divided depending on how much of the total lodging you provide. If you provide only a part and the person supplies the rest, the fair rental value must be divided between both of you according to the amount each provides.

The total fair rental value of a person's home that he or she owns is considered support contributed by that person.

If you live with a person rent free in his or her home, you must reduce the amount you provide for support of that person by the fair rental value of lodging he or she provides you.

Property provided as support is measured by its fair market value. Fair market value is the price that property would sell for on the open market. It is the price that would be agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being required to act, and both having reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.

Capital items, such as furniture, appliances, and cars, bought for a person during the year can be included in total support under certain circumstances.

The following examples show when a capital item is or isn't support.

Medical insurance premiums you pay, including premiums for supplementary Medicare coverage, are included in the support you provide.

Medical insurance benefits, including basic and supplementary Medicare benefits, aren't part of support.

Amounts veterans receive under the GI Bill for tuition payments and allowances while they attend school are included in total support.

If you pay someone to provide child or dependent care, you can include these payments in the amount you provided for the support of your child or disabled dependent, even if you claim a credit for the payments. For information on the credit, see Pub. 503.

Other items may be considered as support depending on the facts in each case.

The custodial parent is the parent with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the year. The other parent is the noncustodial parent.

If the parents divorced or separated during the year and the child lived with both parents before the separation, the custodial parent is the one with whom the child lived for the greater number of nights during the rest of the year.

A child is treated as living with a parent for a night if the child sleeps:

If the child lived with each parent for an equal number of nights during the year, the custodial parent is the parent with the higher adjusted gross income.

The night of December 31 is treated as part of the year in which it begins. For example, the night of December 31, 2016, is treated as part of 2016.

If a child is emancipated under state law, the child is treated as not living with either parent.

If a child wasn't with either parent on a particular night (because, for example, the child was staying at a friend's house), the child is treated as living with the parent with whom the child normally would have lived for that night. But if it can't be determined with which parent the child normally would have lived or if the child wouldn't have lived with either parent that night, the child is treated as not living with either parent that night.

If, due to a parent's nighttime work schedule, a child lives for a greater number of days, but not nights, with the parent who works at night, that parent is treated as the custodial parent. On a school day, the child is treated as living at the primary residence registered with the school.

The custodial parent must use either Form 8332 or a similar statement (containing the same information required by the form) to make the written declaration to release the exemption to the noncustodial parent. The noncustodial parent must attach a copy of the form or statement to his or her tax return.

The exemption can be released for 1 year, for a number of specified years (for example, alternate years), or for all future years, as specified in the declaration.

If the divorce decree or separation agreement went into effect after 1984 and before 2009, the noncustodial parent may be able to attach certain pages from the decree or agreement instead of Form 8332. The decree or agreement must state all three of the following.

The noncustodial parent must attach all of the following pages of the decree or agreement to his or her tax return.

The noncustodial parent can't attach pages from the decree or agreement to the tax return instead of Form 8332 if the decree or agreement went into effect after 2008. The custodial parent must sign either Form 8332 or a similar statement whose only purpose is to release the custodial parent's claim to an exemption for a child, and the noncustodial parent must attach a copy to his or her return. The form or statement must release the custodial parent's claim to the child without any conditions. For example, the release must not depend on the noncustodial parent paying support.

The noncustodial parent must attach the required information even if it was filed with a return in an earlier year.

The custodial parent can revoke a release of claim to an exemption that he or she previously released to the noncustodial parent. For the revocation to be effective for 2016, the custodial parent must have given (or made reasonable efforts to give) written notice of the revocation to the noncustodial parent in 2015 or earlier. The custodial parent can use Part III of Form 8332 for this purpose and must attach a copy of the revocation to his or her return for each tax year he or she claims the child as a dependent as a result of the revocation.

If you remarry, the support provided by your new spouse is treated as provided by you.

All child support payments actually received from the noncustodial parent under a pre-1985 agreement are considered used for the support of the child.

Payments to a spouse that are includible in the spouse's gross income as either alimony, separate maintenance payments, or similar payments from an estate or trust, aren't treated as a payment for the support of a dependent.

This special rule for divorced or separated parents also applies to parents who never married and lived apart at all times during the last 6 months of the year.

If the support of the child is determined under a multiple support agreement, this special support test for divorced or separated parents (or parents who live apart) doesn't apply.

If you are preparing a return for someone who died in 2016, consider the taxpayer to be 65 or older at the end of 2016 only if he or she was 65 or older at the time of death. Even if the taxpayer was born before January 2, 1952, he or she isn't considered 65 or older at the end of 2016 unless he or she was 65 or older at the time of death.

A person is considered to reach age 65 on the day before his or her 65th birthday.

If you aren't totally blind, you must get a certified statement from an eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist) that:

If your eye condition isn't likely to improve beyond these limits, the statement should include this fact. Keep the statement in your records.

If your vision can be corrected beyond these limits only by contact lenses that you can wear only briefly because of pain, infection, or ulcers, you can take the higher standard deduction for blindness if you otherwise qualify.

If your spouse died in 2016 before reaching age 65, you can't take a higher standard deduction because of your spouse. Even if your spouse was born before January 2, 1952, he or she isn't considered 65 or older at the end of 2016 unless he or she was 65 or older at the time of death.

A person is considered to reach age 65 on the day before his or her 65th birthday.