Unemployment before getting married

Every state is different, but in general, from what I understand of unemployment, is that is it an individual benefit and your earnings are based on your individual previous wages/salary and being married has no impact on that.

Being married WILL affect your taxes, so when tax time comes your unemployment insurance payments (which are considered earned income) may end up being taxed at a different rate once you and your husband file jointly. If you are concerned about that I would consult a tax professional to ask if there is anything you need to do now to ensure that your paid taxes and your owed taxes aren't way off. We got married this year and my tax preparer said that he always tells clients to leave their taxes as is for the first year (he generally does not advise anyone to change their with holdings right away) and then reassess after that.

To clarify, my tax preparer's advice is to leave withholdings on the W-4 as they were prior to marriage, regardless of whether you are filing jointly or not. You can still file as "Married, Filing Jointly" or "Married, Filing Separately" regardless of your status on your W-4.

The W-4 is primarily to estimate your tax owed, so that the correct amount can be withheld on each paycheck. If you estimate incorrectly, you could owe taxes or get a refund. The W-4 is pretty much an estimation tool, whereas the taxes you file at the end of the year (with your W-2s and 1099s) are your official documentation of what you earned and what you owe.

I have always generally erred on the side of having too much tax withheld and then getting a solid refund vs having to owe additional money at tax time. I did not change anything on my W-4 but my husband and I plan to file jointly during the next tax year. There are some online calculators that you can use to estimate how your taxes will change after you are married.

In the past most couples making different salaries have generally saved some money by filing jointly, and only those couples with very similar income experience a "tax penalty" where they pay more in taxes filing together than they do filing separately. However tax laws sometimes change drastically within a given year (especially with administration changes in the White House) so it's best to talk to a tax professional to find out what works best for your specific situation. Covid relief aid is going to further complicate things, so figuring out taxes for 2020 will likely be crazy, married or not!