Hey everyone and I wanna get some thoughts.
People who are married and both spouse and you have a job. Do you file "jointly-married" or "separately-married?"
Please give me your thoughts on what you do and why?
Thanks for the input.
Hey everyone and I wanna get some thoughts.
People who are married and both spouse and you have a job. Do you file "jointly-married" or "separately-married?"
Please give me your thoughts on what you do and why?
Thanks for the input.
Each circumstance is different obviously, but few advantages of filing jointly... Lower tax on combined income, higher standard deduction, more tax benefits. Talk to your CPA for a better advice. My lil bro is a CPA, he charges $160 per tax return in most cases. Let me know if you can use his service.
Some research I have done is that higher joint income couples sometimes will file separately even though there are the tax credits.
For instance, thus far filing married-separate is way better according to turbo tax rather than filing married-jointly. My wife and I make about 145,000 (gross) and have no kids.
Might be a good option for you. My wife and I make about half that, have a kid on the way, and have only been married for 2 years.
I just had a thought: Little HoneyBadger will be born in March... Should I wait until after he is born to file taxes?
My Feedback
"When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law." -Frederic Bastiat
"I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin."
― Russell Kirk, Author of The Conservative Mind
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Last edited by hobowh; 02-11-2013 at 18:34.
The Hobo
How does having a child in 2013 impact the 2012 tax year?
Liberals never met a slippery slope they didn't grease.
-Me
I wish technology solved people issues. It seems to just reveal them.
-Also Me
What GMan means to say is that 2012 Tax Return only pertains to the events that happened in 2012 with very limited exceptions (such as being allowed to make retirement contributions in january that effect the previous year). Your child being born in march will only affect your 2013 tax return.
The vast majority of cases I have seen show that MFJ is a much better outcome than MFS, unless the income is completely skewed towards the Taxpayer or Spouse, and even then MFJ might still turn out to be the better scenario.
My Feedback
"When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law." -Frederic Bastiat
"I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin."
― Russell Kirk, Author of The Conservative Mind
Taxes this year suck. And I specify this year because we usually get money back not pay.
FWIW... my wife and I got married a year ago. My income is essentially the same as last year - last year I got $600 back combined Fed and State. This year, she tried it on Turbotax to see how much she'd make, and came out at 2500. Jointly, we're getting back $6000. Sooo.... in our case, we seem to get back more filing jointly. My income is around 56,000 and hers is around 22,000 (which is why she's in school to catch up to my pay grade. lol.). Hope this helps.