We’re smack in the middle of wedding season across most of the country. Statistically, more couples will tie the knot in June than any other month but the official popular ‘season’ runs from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day – kind of like vacation season. According to The Wedding Report, nearly 2.1 million couples got married in the U.S. in 2010; on the other end of the spectrum in that same year, there were at least 872,000 divorces according to the National Vital Statistics System for the Center for Disease Control (although, according to their site, some data is missing from their report).
Making big lifestyle changes like getting married or divorced often has obvious tax consequences. But one of the biggest tax consequences can be the headache of simply changing your name: a mismatch between the name on your federal income tax return and Social Security Administration records can cause problems come tax time.
If you change your name as a result of marriage or divorce, you’ll need to make sure that you take the proper steps to update the change with Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Here are a few tips for dealing with the SSA and IRS after a name change:
If you take your spouse’s last name or if both spouses hyphenate their last names – or if you use a new combined name – after marriage, you must notify the SSA. If you change your name back to your prior name after a divorce, you’ll also need to notify the SSA.
To notify the SSA, file a form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card (downloads as a pdf). You must provide documents to prove your identity, support the requested change, and establish the reason for the change.
In the case of a marriage, the SSA can only accept an original or certified copy of a marriage certificate. If you don’t have either, try requesting one from the state or country recorder where you got married.
In the case of a divorce, the SSA can only accept an original or certified copy of a divorce decree. If you don’t have either, again, you can request one from the state or country recorder where your divorce was finalized. And since I get asked this quite often, I’ll point out that there is no such thing as a common-law divorce: if you are legally married (common-law marriages are still legal in some states), you must obtain a bona fide divorce in order to be divorced.
You can file the form, together with your original documents, at your local SSA office (you can find yours here) or you can mail the form and your original documents to your local SSA office. If you choose to mail your documents, be sure to use a traceable method so that they don’t get lost. Your original documents will be returned to you.
You should receive your card within 10 business days from the date on your receipt. The new card will have the same number as your previous card but it will show your new name.
Again, these tips apply to folks changing their names due to marriage or divorce. If you’re petitioning to change your name legally (as Gerald Ford did) or if you’re simply changing your stage name (a la Snoop Dogg to Snoop Lion), the rules are a bit different.
Your marital status as of the last day of the year determines how you file your federal income tax return with the IRS. So, if you get married on December 31, 2012, you’re married for tax purposes for 2012. The same rules apply for a divorce. Those rules apply whether or not you change your name.
I’m curious: when you got married or divorced, did you change your name?
