does being married help you save more money on taxes than being single?

Question

i just got married but have not change my status has far as my paycheck is concerned. will i be saving money if i change my status?

Answer 1

If your question is "Will my tax liability change depending if I enter 'Married' or 'Single' on my W-4?", then the answer is "No".

Many people focus on the refund rather than the liability. Let me use an analogy to explain. Let's say you owe me $720 and give me $20 per week for the whole year for a grand total of $1040. Since you only owed me $720, I would "refund" you $320. If you only paid me $10 per week, you would still owe me another $200.

Taxes are similar. The $20 per week is your federal withholding. It is the amount taken from your paycheck each pay period to pay for your year-end liability...the $720. If your tax liability is less that what you withheld all year, you get a refund. If it wasn't enough, you still owe.

What you enter on your W-4 only determines your weekly withholding. It does NOT affect in any way your year-end tax liability. By default, it also effects your refund amount (refer to the example). Throttling your withholding changes your refund amount, but at the end of the year, the only thing that really matters is your tax liability. I encourage my clients to focus on lowering their tax liability.

So, how does getting married affect your tax liability? Generally, if you are both working and making similar salaries, getting married tends to increase your tax liability. If only one person is working, getting married lowers your tax liability. The people who, generally, are worse off getting married are people who are single and who have children...especially people who make less than $35,000. Why? Well, when you earn less than $35,000 per year and have children, you get the Earned Income Credit. Since the credit is based on your earnings, a married couple must combine their earnings to determine the credit. If you each make around $24,000 per year, as two single people with kids, you will get lots of credit. As a married couple with $48,000 of income, you get no Earned Income Credit. A simple marriage certificate eradicates both of your credits in one fell swoop.

Ultimately, what I do is use last year's tax forms and do a mock tax return for the new year based on the information you have from your pay stubs. You know how much you and your spouse earned so far and can extrapolate to the end of the year. You also know how much you withheld so far and can extrapolate that to the end of the year. Fill out the forms and figure out your tax liability and your potential refund. If your refund is too small, or if you owe too much money, then change your W-4 to have more taken out of your paycheck. If your refund is too large and you want more money in your paycheck, then change your W-4 to have less taken out.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 2

First you have to clarify what you mean by the word "Save". If you are married, does your spouse work? In any case you should fill out a new W-4 to turn in to the payroll department. You can probably have a larger paycheck as less federal income tax has to be withheld when you are married; unless you have a working spouse. Then you should both fill out the reverse side of the W-4 so that the correct withholding is computed by each of your employers. Reverse is for two-worker families; or persons holding down two jobs.

Answer 3

The link below is a calculator provided by the IRS to help estimate the best number of withholding allowances to claim on your W-4 (the form you give your employer to determine withholding. Changing from single to married will result in less income tax being withheld. Claiming more allowances would also result in less withholding.

NOTE: the amount withheld does not change your actual tax liability. It only changes how much is taken from your check in advance. If you do not have enough withheld throughout the year, you will have to pay the difference in April.

Answer 4

Yes, the more you file the more money you get in your total paycheck.(They take less out)

Answer 5

go to irs.gov and do the w4 generator thing...itll tell you exactly what to file as to match withholding to income and status.