The best part about getting married....

lembaslover

@labro thank you, that makes a lot of sense. 

thisismynickname2

On the buying a house tax break topic.... In 2010, I was so excited to get a promotion, which resulted in a raise that allowed me to buy my condo. Little did I know my raise put me in the next tax bracket and wiped out any benefit I would have gotten for being a homeowner. 

I think the first tax year you get married it's very helpful to go to an accountant that year. Any year with a major event, just to get the advice and ask questions. So, we were married in 2014 and DH's condo hadn't sold, so we were carrying another property. That isn't a conundrum I'd leave to my usual HR Block computer software. And this year, in 2015 we sold his condo at a loss, so we went back to the accountant. 
Next year, we'll have sold mine and bought new. The year after that, a first kid maybe. After that, I'd probably go back to computer software when the major life stuff calms down. 

huskypuppy14

kimmiinthemitten said:

Real question of the tax losers (teehee).  Can't you just file separately and not be affected?  Or does changing your marital status still somehow take the other persons income into question somehow?

No filing separately is not the same as filing single. It still takes the other's income into account for certain things, and the tax brackets are lower than filing single, so for most people it hurts them even worse.

We got married and bought a house the same year. We also sold stock which pushed our income higher than normal. We owed last year. We are actually getting a refund this year, but only because I payed estimated taxes due to selling stock. Buying a house and itemizing did significantly decrease our burden, though moreso than being married. 

huskypuppy14

The best part of being married is not having to plan a wedding anymore.
  

julieanne912

Our accountant told us that if we did married filing separate that means only one person could take most of the itemized deductions, so the other person gets screwed.  In my case, it would mean I would get screwed because I wouldn't be able to take as many deductions since H would need to take them since his name is on the mortgage, and not mine.

Basically H got more of the raw end of the deal than I did.  I had 1099 income from the very beginning of 2015 that I didn't pay taxes on and I knew I would owe some.  In previous years, when he was not married, H would get a refund.  But this year, since we're filing together, his refund sort of helped to "cancel" out what I owed, so we ended up owing about $2,000, which was less than I expected based on my 1099 stuff, but he was pretty mad about not getting a refund.

I'm adjusting my withholdings so this doesn't happen again, so hopefully we'll fare better next year.

OurWildKingdom

huskypuppy14 said:

The best part of being married is not having to plan a wedding anymore.
  

Sounds about right!

OurWildKingdom

Being done with dating drama! One of my coworkers has new stories every week about the guys she's talking to and meeting. Entertaining as a spectator, but I'm glad I get to go home to someone awesome every day.

Wanderlust543

The registry completion discounts! It's been 4 years now of "Stop buying housewares, there will be nothing left to register for by the time we get around to getting married" followed by my response of "Then hurry up if you're so concerned."  FI's family is big on shopping off registries, so ever since we got engaged, we made a deal and I've slowed down on the housewares, but there are several registry items that I've promised to hold out for in case they're gifted that I'm itching to buy and play with!

DarthV8r

I got a free shot last night. because i got married.

holyguacamole79

OurWildKingdom said:

Being done with dating drama! One of my coworkers has new stories every week about the guys she's talking to and meeting. Entertaining as a spectator, but I'm glad I get to go home to someone awesome every day.

QFT

glasgowtolondon

holyguacamole79 said:

OurWildKingdom said:

Being done with dating drama! One of my coworkers has new stories every week about the guys she's talking to and meeting. Entertaining as a spectator, but I'm glad I get to go home to someone awesome every day.

QFT

I agree. I completely love the dating stories. Its so much fun to vicariously live the disasters and drama safe in the knowledge that I don't have to do it myself! Thank the lord for all my single colleagues!

glasgowtolondon

huskypuppy14 said:

The best part of being married is not having to plan a wedding anymore.
  

Oh how I look forward to this. 

kimmiinthemitten

DarthV8r said:

I got a free shot last night. because i got married.

Ha!  My girlfriends and I got brunch before dress shopping and they gave me a free decanter of mimosa. Free drinks for the win!

holyguacamole79

The morning of the wedding,  I decided I wanted to get a greeting card to give to DH with a sweet message on it. I had a few minutes to spare before my hair & MUA arrived, so I ran to Walgreens.  It was empty except for a random lady arguing with the cashier about if something was on sale or not.  I could tell it wasn't going to be a short discussion, so I calmly said,  "hi, can I please just check out with this card?   It's my wedding day and my hair stylist will be there soon."  Both women were nice and let me pay.   I just had to laugh that I played the "it's my wedding day" card.