Tax HELP and Marriage

[thrillme]

I've been widowed for a number of years and my DS and I have survived comfortably.

In the past year I've been fortunate to have met a WONDERFUL gentleman who has truly blessed our lives with a lot of newfound happiness. We are looking forward to becoming a family.

The question I'm curious of and I've found no answer that really focuses on MY particular issue is...

We both earn almost to the dollar the same amount.

We both usually receive a comfortable refund each year that I would hate to lose. My DS is the only child in the picture...how badly can I expect to "hurt" financially in the tax department if we get married verses staying single?

[merlinmagic4]

Do you have to file married? Now, I haven't done our taxes for many, many years but I thought that used to be an option: to file joint or single returns. I'm sure you'll have your answer soon and congratulations on the new life you are starting!

[ldn324]

Can you consult with your tax person to get an idea using filing married/joint return vs. filing married/separate return? Filing separate isn't quite the same as filing single, but sometimes it can be better than filing joint.

DH is self employed and I have an employer plus the house is in my name. Sometimes, depending on how much income DH reports for the year, we file separate returns. For 2006, it made more sense for us to file separately since I took the deduction for interest and closing costs on a new home purchase and DH reported greater than usual income for the year. 2005 was a quiet year so we filed a joint return that year.

Your tax preparer should be able to help you get a ballpark idea of what would be better in your situation.

Also, do one of you have far better benefits than the other? For instance - if you had full family coverage health insurance and your friend/fiance only had partial paid family coverage, that might be a better benefit to you in the long run than any change in taxes. So for reasons other than taxes it might make more sense financially to marry vs. staying single.

[thrillme]

The benefits portion will save us a "little". He currently has single benefits and I'm already paying for "family" benefits so I'll add him to my insurance so he'll be able to drop his.

But other than that we're pretty identical right down to we both take the pickles off our hamburgers and eat them seperately.

Strangely the tax advisor I was talking too was rather "evasive". It's like he was nervous about the question.

[crazypoohbear]

I think if you are married when you FILE your taxes you file married/filing seperately or married filing jointly.
If memory serves if you file married/separately it penalizes you.
at your JOB on your W-4 you can file
Single with zero dependants and have the higher taxes taken out weekly which would benefit you in April.
I would find a different tax attorney and ask these questions before getting married again.
It sounds like you would like to be married but it isn't a do or die issue for you both. So take your time, get the answers you need from qualified persons, (we are helpful to a point but we are only disney experts, not tax experts )
Let us know what you find out and decide.
And congrats on finding a great guy!

[thrillme]

I think if you are married when you FILE your taxes you file married/filing seperately or married filing jointly.
If memory serves if you file married/separately it penalizes you.
at your JOB on your W-4 you can file
Single with zero dependants and have the higher taxes taken out weekly which would benefit you in April.
I would find a different tax attorney and ask these questions before getting married again.
It sounds like you would like to be married but it isn't a do or die issue for you both. So take your time, get the answers you need from qualified persons, (we are helpful to a point but we are only disney experts, not tax experts )
Let us know what you find out and decide.
And congrats on finding a great guy!

I think everybody here is great and have a lot wonderful ideas. The marriage is just that formal committment stage but we've already decided that we're in it for the long haul. It's funny how easy all these "financial" things are when you are in your early 20's. Now I think I over think EVERYTHING...maybe I just need another trip to Disney.

The married filing seperately does not look like a good thing unless someone is earning a lot more than party the other party but not so much that it puts them in a really high bracket.

The whole tax thing can be really confusing and interesting at the same time. Every year our office offers classes for volunteers to become tax advisors for the organization. Of course they pretty much handle the "average" tax groups but...perhaps I ought to become a volunteer. Maybe I might be able to help a few others out too.

[BrerGnat]

Before my DH and I got married, we were making roughly the same amount also, and when we got married and filed jointly, we actually got back a refund for the first time. I always thought that being married provided you a tax BENEFIT. However, if you are both BIG earners, maybe not. When we got married we weren't making very much, and our combined incomes still kept us in the same tax bracket. Even if you're married, though, can't you still file single? As long as you report on your W-2 that you are single, does it matter?

[MsMin]

Personally, I love Turbo Tax. My dad is a CPA and I use it to help him prepare taxes b/c it transfers info etc. If you knew someone who had a copy you could run the numbers now on the program and see what happens. The files are not connected to any online data base and you could use it to get a great estimate and to plan since the end of the year is coming fast.
I find so many ppl fail to take advantage of many of the deductions that are available to them. Best of luck.