Taxes. Excuse me?

Here's more info to investigate tax write-off's. So far I know my church ceremony fee is a church donation:

Turbo Tax Wedding Write offs

I'm confused, did you expect the actual wedding to provide tax benefits?

View Quoted Comment No, I knew I couldn't deduct wedding expenses. But, I thought there would be some tax benefit for having a government-binding affiliation. It's more complicated.

View Quoted Comment

The benefit is you get a large standard deduction based on your combined income if you file jointly. However, if there is a large discrepancy in your incomes, like being in different tax brackets different, it may be better to file separately. If the spouse with the lower income has a lot of deductions it will ultimately result in a larger return for both.

Generally, filing jointly is the best way to go. If you're a couple with only one working spouse filing jointly can have a massive impact because the earning partner can claim a dependent.

Theres really no benefit in filing as single once youre married when filing married-separate is essentially the same. If you file single but are married and living together you run the risk of being audited since youre filing incorrectly. The only time you can file single once married is if you're legally separated.

Unfortunately taxes are going to be a very unique situation to each couple. For some couples, married filing separately works out better than filing jointly and vice versa for others. I'm still in grad school with a really pathetic stipend (final year, yay!), so filing jointly actually helps my husband and I because our combined income drops us to a lower tax bracket + the continuing education tax credit and paid tuition result in a pretty decent refund compared to when we filed as single prior to marriage in the same financial situation.

I will ask/say this, please do not listen to anything from TurboTax (or H&R Block) they are one of the absolute worst to listen for tax advice.

Single - "Higher" tax rate, mostly for people not married or legally separated couple who is not claiming child or children.

Married- filing separate - Usually for a married couple that one does not want to claim liability for the other's taxes due to IRS or state(s) that are owed/making payments on. There are some clients at the firm I work for that choose this option every year as one of them owes money to IRS and is making payments.

Married- filing jointly - This is the typical filing for most couples, as it is usually the best option.

If you're married filing jointly, then you may qualify for some of these tax credits:

1. Earned Income Tax Credit.
2. Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
3. Adoption Credit.
4. Credit for the Elderly and Disabled.
5. American Opportunity Credit.
6. Lifetime Opportunity Credit for Higher Education Expenses

For many people, the main tax benefit of filing as a married couple is ease: They get to file a joint tax return, and sometimes, take more deductions. Minimizing any potential negative tax implications of marriage requires advance planning

What I have actually done to see how we should file this year is plugged us both in individually to a tax return calculator, then plugged us in as MFJ to see which makes more sense for us! We're in the same tax bracket, so MFJ makes the most sense for us right now!

Thank you everyone for your tips and experience. I'm used to handling my own responsibilities, so waiting on a joint meeting with the accountant for full asset- transparency will be an adjustment.

My research actually indicates that when filing jointly (as a general rule), you are more likely to get a tax break if you have very disparate incomes compared to if you and your spouse have similar salaries (which is opposite what everyone else here has said so far). Regardless, there are "marriage tax penalty calculators" online that you can use to estimate the difference between filing jointly or separately for your unique situation.

Keep in mind the online calculators tend to be helpful for calculating your federal taxes but I'm not sure how well they work for state taxes. If you work in different states or live in a state different from the state where you work, you may find you need to file your federal and state taxes differently. Also if you are self-employed, deduct some of your home expenses as part of work or your business or otherwise itemize deductions, or have multiple sources of income (vs you and your spouse each working a salaried job for another employer) you may find the numbers work out differently.

I used to do my taxes myself but switched to a tax preparation professional years ago and I found it to be well worth the cost to know things were being done correctly and not have to figure out every change in the tax laws every year. He saved us what I only imagine would have been a tremendous headache when hubby and I combined taxes our first year. DH makes significantly more than I do and works in our income tax free home state, but I work in a neighboring state that has an income tax and some bizarre tax rules. I probably would have lost an entire weekend trying to figure it out and still done it wrong, but my tax guy had us filed correctly within the hour.