Chit Chat

The best part about getting married....

But not the real best part; the frivolous best part.

Today, FI and I got BOGO Starbucks coupons for registering at Target!  
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Re: The best part about getting married....

  • From my pit of planning hell* this week I say take the good parts when they come! 

    *I might be being dramatic.
                 
  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.

  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    Actually, not necessarily. There was a long thread awhile ago (you could probably just search taxes in the chit chat search) and you'll see that some people make more together and get pushed up a tax bracket, whereas if they filed single they'd be in a lower tax bracket. 
    This year, DH and I got pretty much the same refund total each of us would normally get as individuals. Kind of a bummer as we're buying a new home and want to purchase new furniture. We were hoping for more furniture cash! 
    The tax benefits are for couples who have significant income disparity, like a SAH parent and one breadwinner. 
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  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    So, my H realized just last month that he never changed our car insurance status to "married", so we were inadvertently paying, like, $30/month more than we should have. I'm glad he caught it eventually.

    Re: tax refund - I had heard from others that the bigger tax refund was a myth for some people, but it just comes down to whether your combined income pushes you into a higher tax bracket. Luckily for me and H, we got a pretty good refund this year filing jointly.
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    FW is on disability but her income is twice my employment income. How will that affect me when I file next year?
  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    FW is on disability but her income is twice my employment income. How will that affect me when I file next year?
    I'd recommend an accountant or tax preparer for that one. It's going to depend on your state, on both your incomes, how you two decide to file. Talking to a professional will help you look over your options. 
  • Thanks @charlotte989875, I will definitely reach out to an accountant. 
  • julieanne912julieanne912 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited February 2016
    Uh yeah getting a bigger tax refund is not always true, especially if one spouse is a much higher earner than another.  In our case, H makes a little less than 3x's what I do.  We owed money.
    Married 9.12.15
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  • Oh sorry y'all! I didn't mean to give false info. That was the case for us, but I do know it isn't the case for everybody. Brain fart. My bad!

  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    Not me!  

    My H has a speeding problem so no combining insurance and we owe on taxes for the first time in either of our lives!!
  • Oh sorry y'all! I didn't mean to give false info. That was the case for us, but I do know it isn't the case for everybody. Brain fart. My bad!
    Well, at least it worked out for you haha.


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  • Uh yeah getting a bigger tax refund is not always true, especially if one spouse is a much higher earner than another.  In our case, H makes a little less than 3x's what I do.  We owed money.
    Huh, and I had heard that the bigger the income disparity between spouses, the more likely you are to get a refund. H makes about 2x what I do, and we got a big refund filing jointly. I guess there really is not a hard and fast rule about it, except for whether filing jointly pushes you into a higher tax bracket.


    BabyFruit Ticker
  • So we also are getting a tax break this year since we got married (and for part of the year H was still adjuncting) but won't next year. @thefanciestbeckler you weren't totally wrong, the tax break was great for us too!
  • Uh yeah getting a bigger tax refund is not always true, especially if one spouse is a much higher earner than another.  In our case, H makes a little less than 3x's what I do.  We owed money.
    Huh, and I had heard that the bigger the income disparity between spouses, the more likely you are to get a refund. H makes about 2x what I do, and we got a big refund filing jointly. I guess there really is not a hard and fast rule about it, except for whether filing jointly pushes you into a higher tax bracket.


    If there is a big income disparity the lower paid person can bring the higher paid down so effectively together they are in a lower tax bracket. If the 2 are similar then it can push you higher from what I read. I think that is what happened with us. 
  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    Yeah, no!!
    I lost my PMI deduction and half of my student loan interest deduction :'(
    But I guess it's nice that I can still eat while being unemployed, and who knows what next year's tax situation will be.

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    Daisypath - Personal pictureDaisypath Anniversary tickers

  • Our tax refund was about the same combined now that we're married as they were last year when they were separate. I do love the insurance discounts, though! 
  • YES! Get ready for the insurance discounts.

    AND you get a bigger tax refund.
    I wish! DH and I make roughly the same, he's a few thousand more than me a year but it bumped us up to a new tax bracket and said we didn't qualify for any deductions I used to qualify for (ie. student loan interest etc...). It really sucked because now even though we have the max withholding from both of us we ended up owing...

    ernursej said:
    Is that people will stop asking when we will get married!! Sigh - now it will just be replaced with questions about babies ....
    Depending on who is asking the first question won't stop for a while either lol. We work at a large company and did not invite everyone to the wedding. Some coworkers that we don't interact with every day were still asking us when the date was 3 months after lol. But you're right once they know it's happened you get "how's married life" or "when are the kids coming?" "have you bought a house yet?".
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I finally get money back from our taxes thanks to marrying DH. Of course that comes with a condo mortgage so it's a give and take. But it was nice to do my taxes and not owe $60 for the first time in years.
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  • 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?
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  • 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?
    You can still file separately, but your status will change from "single" to "married filing separately." Not 100% sure what that means in terms of tax brackets, but the IRS does count it differently than if you are single.
    BabyFruit Ticker
  • 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?
    You can file as married filing separate. In our case it would have lead to H owing about $2k and me getting a refund of about $2k. BUT if you make Roth IRA contributions you can't file that way so we figured it is basically a wash vs what we owe together $125 and it wasn't worth changing our IRA contributions. 
  • SP29SP29 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Cake!

    And eating the food at our reception! You pick the meal sooo many months in advance, I was excited to actually eat it.

    I got my hair and make up professionally done, and it turned out well. So, having professional photos of myself where I look damn good is nice.

    DH and I are not helped in the tax bracket by being married. Fortunately we racked up a lot of tuition credits from our many years of post secondary education. That'll protect us for maybe one more year.
  • No, filing separately brought us from about $1200 refund to owing over $4000.

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    Daisypath - Personal pictureDaisypath Anniversary tickers

  • 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?
    https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/IRS-Tax-Return/2013-Federal-Tax-Rate-Schedules/INF12044.html

    Those are the tax brackets for 2015 for the different schedules. I did some math and I think we might have saved slightly if we had filed separately but it was only like $100 (and that's roughly what it would have cost me to file my tax return). I'm not a tax expert so perhaps the math I did was wrong but bottom line as soon as we got married we got screwed in terms of taxes. I believe once you throw things like having a kid or getting a house into the mix it changes and filing jointly becomes more advantageous. 
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • labrolabro member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    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?
    https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/IRS-Tax-Return/2013-Federal-Tax-Rate-Schedules/INF12044.html

    Those are the tax brackets for 2015 for the different schedules. I did some math and I think we might have saved slightly if we had filed separately but it was only like $100 (and that's roughly what it would have cost me to file my tax return). I'm not a tax expert so perhaps the math I did was wrong but bottom line as soon as we got married we got screwed in terms of taxes. I believe once you throw things like having a kid or getting a house into the mix it changes and filing jointly becomes more advantageous. 
    I'm going to burst your bubble now and say that while it helps...the marriage "penalty" can still come and bite you in the ass. We owed $4k this year. Now we're funneling the max into our 401ks so that will never ever happen again.



  • labro 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?
    https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/IRS-Tax-Return/2013-Federal-Tax-Rate-Schedules/INF12044.html

    Those are the tax brackets for 2015 for the different schedules. I did some math and I think we might have saved slightly if we had filed separately but it was only like $100 (and that's roughly what it would have cost me to file my tax return). I'm not a tax expert so perhaps the math I did was wrong but bottom line as soon as we got married we got screwed in terms of taxes. I believe once you throw things like having a kid or getting a house into the mix it changes and filing jointly becomes more advantageous. 
    I'm going to burst your bubble now and say that while it helps...the marriage "penalty" can still come and bite you in the ass. We owed $4k this year. Now we're funneling the max into our 401ks so that will never ever happen again.
    I guess I shouldn't be surprised? Can I ask why putting the max into your 401K will help? 
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • labrolabro member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    @marriedhamstermom Because those dollars all go in pre-tax so it reduces our overall tax burden. It's a wonderful wonderful thing for as long as it lasts. Obviously we'll pay tax later when we start withdrawing but hopefully our income tax bracket will be lower as retirees so the taxes we pay on them won't be as high as we'd pay now if we just took the income and didn't put it into a retirement account.



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