Amend joint/married return to head of household and single returns?

I have been searching for hours trying to find this answer. I have a client who is married but has not lived with her husband for a few years (they are separated, but not legally) and she has a daughter who has lived with her this whole time. She has been giving her tax information to her husband for him to give to his CPA, so they have been filing joint returns.

She wants to amend her 2007 return because her daughter is trying to get financial aid for college and she cannot due to her parents making too much money, since they filed jointly. She was hoping to amend the return into two single returns, but I am aware that that is not possible. Is it possible that she can amend it to make herself head of household and then her husband can file a single return?

Your answer appears in the Internal Revenue Manual:

21.6.1.4.5 (10-01-2002)
Joint to Separate, Single, or Head of Household Procedures

1. Married taxpayers may file separate returns on or before the due date of their originally filed joint return.

2. Disallow all claims postmarked after the due date.

Not after midnight 4/15/2008. The only exception would be if they weren't legally married to each other and filed jointly in error.

If it was before 4/15, they could undo the return, but dad would have to have filed as MFS--a much more expensive proposition.

The other post is just plain wrong. You can't undo the joint return for the year unless it's BEFORE 4/15. Even if it was before 4/15, the hubby can't file as single because there wasn't a legal separation decree.

Your client can file head of household, and the husband file single. Per the IRS website, " You may also qualify for head of household status if you, though married, file a separate return, your spouse was not a member of your household during the last six months of the tax year, and you provided more than half the cost of maintaining as your home a household that was the main home for more than one half of your tax year of a qualifying person. " The link is http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc353.html.