Will I lose money on my tax return if I get married?

Question

I am single and file single with three children. How much money will I lose if I get married and change my filing status. I know this is not the reason to avoid marriage, I am just curious. I have been engaged for YEARS and well, I am genuinely considering biting the bullet and getting married.

Answer 1

It is difficult to answer this question without knowing your entire income and expense situation. But if you prepare your taxes with an electronic tax package (such as Turbo Tax or Tax Cut) it is very easy to determine what the difference will be. Simply make a copy of your prior year's return (name it something different like Married Projection), change your filing status to married, and up your dependents (your new spouse and any dependents they have) and make sure to include your spouses income on the return. Then compare the total tax on the projected return to your actual tax return and your spouses actual tax return for last year to determine how much more (or less) it would cost you if you got married.

Married filing separately will almost always cause you to incur more taxes than filing as married.

Answer 2

It is hard to completely answer this without having more information. However, there are a few things that can be taken into consideration.
The standard deduction for a married couple is exactly double that of a single person, however, if you have been filing head of household and the other person has been filing single then you will have a lower standard deduction when filing married filing jointly then head of household and single.

Also there are some credits that are dependent on your incomes. If the joint incomes are a lot more than that of a each of you then these credits might be limited or non existant. An example of this would be earned income credit, as well as retirement savings contribution credit, and others as well.

As far as whether or not you should not get married, if your tax situation is the only thing keeping you from getting married I do not think that it is a good excuse. Just a personal thought.

Answer 3

Wow, hard to answer on point without more information. Do you earn $20,000 or $120,000. What does your intended earn? The so-called "marital penalty relief" only eliminated the disparity in the tax tables thru the 15% bracket. Above that, married folks tend to pay more tax than singles on the same income. Many benefits still have phase outs that favor singles. EIC is the most obvious example but there are DOZENS!!!

One thing I can tell you with certainty: If your combined taxable income puts any of your income in a higher tax bracket, unless one of you was overwithholding (ie having too much taken out) then you will owe at tax time.

I can also tell you that it is possible to do some "what-ifs" as someone suggested. using tax software. Juast be sure to extrapolate al items of income and expense for the entire year, not year to date.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If your incomes are close to equal and one of you has a lot of itemized deductions and the other takes standard, you will probably pay more. If there is a wide disparity between your incomes, you will probably pay less. If you have children you can only get child credits if you file jointly. The situation goes back to when Dad went out to earn an income and Mom was a homemaker with zero wages. The break for married filing jointly in that situation is signficant. With two earner households it is not nearly as pronounced.

Answer 5

Do not file Married Filing Separately. It is the worst tax filing status to be in, and you lose so many credits and deductions that could be available to you. You actually should see a reduction in your tax liability if you file as Married Filing Joint rather than Head of Household, which is how I hope you've been filing with 3 children, if the children have been living with you, and you can claim them as a dependent. If you've been filing single, you should see an even larger reduction in your tax liability.

Answer 6

The tax rates are higher but financially it is cheaper if there is a big difference in the salaries (the lower salary gets taxed at a lower interest rate). Now if this is NOT a friendly divorce or he has a problem paying his debts, there is an exposure if you file jointly. If he does not pay any tax due, they can come to you and make you pay for the both of you. If there is any doubt, I would file separately. In either case, make sure the payment of taxes due and dividing any refund it clearly spelled out in the divorce papers.

Answer 7

There are too many variables to give you an exact answer.

If you are lower income and receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, you probably should stay Single from just a tax viewpoint. After you get married, you will have to file as "Married-Filing Jointly" or "Married-Filing Separately". People who file separately can not recieve EIC and his income may put you over the limit if you file jointly.

Answer 8

You are biting the bullet now because you are not married. You will be better off by being married filing jointly. I went back and read some of your previous answers and I would like to inform you that being "married filing separately" is the leaset desirable filing status to ever use.

Answer 9

If you are getting an Earned Income credit, that will likely be affected - if you are both VERY low income it might increase, but otherwise will probably decrease and depending on your joint income, might be gone. And if you are married filing separately, you are not eligible for the EIC.

Other than that, your total taxes between you will probably be about the same as they are now.

Good luck,. And I'm not talking about taxes.....

Answer 10

If you take her income into account (and you probably should, if you are going marry her), then filing as married filing jointly is much better than each of you filing as single. You as a couple will save on taxes once you are married :)