Something to think about if you're getting married this year

KBinRI

We filed our first taxes as a married couple and were surprised that we owe money when we had always both gotten decent refunds from both federal and state. Now, I'm not saying this will happen to anyone else here, but I wish I'd thought about how changing my filing status would affect our refund, say, last year when we could have done something about our withholdings! But everyone seemed to have the sentiment that we'd get more back now that we were married. Not so, for us anyway. I also started a separate file to try "married, filing separately" and that was far worse for us.

So if you have TurboTax or similar, it might be worth playing around for an evening and creating a file with a joint return, plugging in your info to see how you'd fare next year (assuming your earnings will be about the same and tax laws are fairly similar) to get an estimate. 

Sorry for the Debbie Downer post about icky taxes; we now return to your previously scheduled wedding planning fun! 

SummerBoston10

Our accountant filed an extension this year for us so we haven't done our taxes yet but I'm afraid that this is going to happen to us as well!  I did adjust my withholding when we got married in July to try and counteract this but I'm not sure if it will be enough.

Out of curiosity, do you and your husband make close to the same amount of money?  I have heard that you can be better off married (from a tax perspective) when one person makes significantly more than the other. 

KBinRI

Yes, I made a few thousand more than he does, but he switched jobs in August so I think I'll only be about $1,500 more this year.

What killed us, well, me anyway, is that I'd always surpassed the standard deduction for a single person by itemizing my mortgage interest, property taxes, charitable donations, business expenses, etc. But now our standard deduction is double and he doesn't have anything to itemize, so there's no way we'll exceed that standard deduction. So the house stuff is sort of worthless now. (I mean, it's nice to have one and all, but it's not so helpful anymore at tax season!) 

Good luck with yours!! :-)

i2012do

Oh this is good to know. I'm not getting married until 2012, but its something to keep in mind early next year. This is really interesting, I always assumed you'd fare better married..

I make signnifacantly more than my fiance--so I wonder how it will pan out. 
However, my fiance didn't pay any taxes from last year since he was deployed/miliary active and Now, as a working civilian is finally paying them (and seeing the reality of a pay check with taxes taken out!!)

But your point about the standard deduction is so true- and something for us to keep in mind when buying a house, and doing our taxes next year-- to ask about for the 11' taxes. Ut oh...looks like I might need to call on my Accountant Maid of Honor for more than wedding duties, haha.

Thanks for bringing this up.
I was already hit hard this year- since I didn't get my anticipated return bnecause I am no longer a grad student and not getting the higher educ. credit --- boo hoo

RoyalOrient

yeah I think that's a common misconception. I just wasn't aware of it until a few months ago.  I would lose out on my financial aid for my last year in school if we are married this year. My accountant also told me that we would be owing state taxes next year based on our combined income. I guess if you have dependents (kids) it is a good thing for a married couple.

JadeW24

KB, I've heard that the massive benefit for mortgage expenses is going away (or become less) for the 2011 return, so you may not have been able to claim that anyway (I know that doesn't really make it better, but still).

There is generally not a benefit, tax wise, to being married because your income now counts as double (ie, higher tax bracket), as opposed to just you.  I think where more of the financial benefit comes into play is when you have kids or if (God forbid) something awful happened to one of you, it would be much easier to make decisions.

Regardless, it is good to discuss money -- not just how you spend it, but also how you handle it (ie, rent or mortgage tolleration, taxes, etc), and your general financial situation in advance of getting married.  Taxes is definitely one of those things -- because your tax bracket (and thus the % of taxes the country & state takes) will change.  There are a few things I'm glad we've talked about in advance.