Filing Taxes after getting Married

tabathafaye

Not married yet but wondering how being married will affect our taxes. Will we be taxed less or more?

Any tax gurus out there?

We don't make a lot of money. He is a full time student and part time employee, and I bring home the majority of the bacon. Together we probably make about $40k a year so we will be staying in the same tax bracket if that makes a difference.

Curious if I should change my tax deductions/exemptions (whatever they are called) now and receive more with each paycheck or just wait until we file NEXT year.

cruffino

not a tax guru but we did talk to our accountant about this. he advised that getting married will not appreciably affect our tax return. he said he would run the numbers as "married filing jointly" and "married filing individually" and just go with whatever scenario brought us the bigger refund. 

he also said..."why bother getting married at all. don't ruin a good thing". but he's been married and divorced 3 times so he may be a bit jaded.

Cookie Pusher

FI and I are doing a "dry run" when we file our taxes this year to see what to expect. We'll have all the applicable figures from filing our own taxes anyway, so the only extra work is adding the numbers together.

OliveOilsMom

For us, it sucked.  When I would file single, I got a way better refund!  I tried preparing both ways, Married Filing Jointly and Married Filing Single, but the latter was even worse. 

tabathafaye

I have already submitted my taxes for this year, but I see no harm in doing the forms again on the software and seeing what happens. 

lyndausvi

We pay a lot more.     For us it was better to keep us the single rate on paycheck deductions so they took out enough.  The year we got married we switched to married and got it with $5k to pay.

I'm use to paying, just not that much.  I haven't seen a refund in 17+ years.

Jells2dot0

lyndausvi said:

We pay a lot more.     For us it was better to keep us the single rate on paycheck deductions so they took out enough.  The year we got married we switched to married and got it with $5k to pay.

I'm use to paying, just not that much.  I haven't seen a refund in 17+ years.

We're also in the boat of having to pay more. It really just depends on your incomes, deductions, and how much you withhold. We did a dry run last year and it was not looking good, so my DH lowered his exemptions (mine were already at zero) and we also began withholding more. I actually kept my withholdings as single (it says married, but withholding as single in my HR system.) This year is going to be great- not only do we get to combine our incomes, but my DH loses his child tax credit for the first time. *groan*

JennyColada

We haven't filed, but just by looking at a preliminary form it looks like Fi will be taxed about the same, but that I will be taxed in his tax bracket (about 2 brackets up from where I'm at now).

I'm pretty non-plussed about it, but it makes Fi really angry, which is kind of cute.

lyndausvi

Jells2dot0 said:

lyndausvi said:

We pay a lot more.     For us it was better to keep us the single rate on paycheck deductions so they took out enough.  The year we got married we switched to married and got it with $5k to pay.

I'm use to paying, just not that much.  I haven't seen a refund in 17+ years.

We're also in the boat of having to pay more. It really just depends on your incomes, deductions, and how much you withhold. We did a dry run last year and it was not looking good, so my DH lowered his exemptions (mine were already at zero) and we also began withholding more. I actually kept my withholdings as single (it says married, but withholding as single in my HR system.) This year is going to be great- not only do we get to combine our incomes, but my DH loses his child tax credit for the first time. *groan*

The USVI would take close to 5 YEARS, yes, YEARS to process a refund.  I got use to fiddling with my withhold exemptions to pay only a few hundred dollars.  Then we got married.  Then we moved and hings started to get a little more complicated.  Now we are both single zero and withholding more.   

Such is life.  

tabathafaye

I'd rather get more throughout the year and get little to no refund. Is there any way to figure out how much should be withheld?

lyndausvi

irs.gov has some programs you can use to see how your doing.    My old job we got paid a lot in the beginning of the year  then not much a last quarter. I used the program to take out a lot in the first 7-8 month.  Then take out hardly anything the last months of the year.    I was plus or mine a few hundred doing it that way.   

tabathafaye

I did our taxes for this year to see what would happen. Filing as married would get us 1433 more total.

This year we still have to file single, but it looks good for us next year.

mizangi

His part time job will most likely negatively affect your return because the incomes will be combined but the part-time employer won't deduct enough.  Either you drop to 0 withholding on your W-4 for higher deductions from your paycheck, or have him add a $20 deduction to his each month.  That should help.

tabathafaye

I think for some weird reason he has it set so they take a lot of taxes out of his checks. Just for the fun of it I entered our information into the program this year as if we were married (did not his submit). Doing it that way would have yielded us an additional $1400 refund this year.

princessleia22

lyndausvi said:

We pay a lot more.     For us it was better to keep us the single rate on paycheck deductions so they took out enough.  The year we got married we switched to married and got it with $5k to pay.

I'm use to paying, just not that much.  I haven't seen a refund in 17+ years.

I'm the same way... no refund in about 10 years.  I always pay quite a bit every April, but I get to use my money or have it building interest in my bank account all year.  I figure that as long as I make sure I have the money set aside to cover it, that I'd rather have my money in my bank getting interest rather than letting the government use it for free.

HobokensFury

DH works for a Catholic school. They never take enough taxes out so I still claim single to balance it out. We get slightly more back filing together.

lovesclimbing

We both claim single so we get more back at the end of the year.  We'd rather take too much out rather than too little.

What I was used to paying went up when we got married.  What H was used to paying went way down (and he's the one who supports us since I'm going to school, still).  We probably pay less than what either of would pay single.

Jells2dot0

I was just re-reading this and it reminded me to order more checks. Now I'm depressed. LOL