Got married in 2005, how will that effect our taxes?

[Chicago526]

DH and I got married in 2005. Obviously we'll be filing as married on our taxes. How will this affect us? Will our taxes go up, or should they stay the same? DH never itemized, he filed on the 1040 EZ form. I've itemized the past few years since I owned a home. So I deducted mortgage interest, real estate taxes, and charitable contributions. We both claimed 1 for tax witholding for 2005. Last year I got a $500 refund and DH got a $1,000 refund. Our income hasn't really changed, so should we still expect a refund in the neighborhood of about $1,500? I'll be filing with Turbo Tax, but since neither of us have gotten our W-2's yet, I can't play with any numbers.

 

[Bob Slydell]

but since neither of us have gotten our W-2's yet, I can't play with any numbers.

If you have your last paychecks of 2005, you can use those in the meantime in lieu of your W-2's.

General rule of thumb is to expect a lower refund the year you get married (the so-called "marriage penalty").

 

[Chicago526]

If you have your last paychecks of 2005, you can use those in the meantime in lieu of your W-2's.

General rule of thumb is to expect a lower refund the year you get married (the so-called "marriage penalty").

I might do that, I'll be buying the '06 TT this weekend.

But I thought the "marriage penalty" was esentially eliminated? I thought that was a part of the Bush tax cut (about the only thing I liked about that tax cut, but that's another thread!)

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I got married this year too, so it'll be interesting to see how much we both get back.

 

[cardaway]

General rule of thumb is to expect a lower refund the year you get married (the so-called "marriage penalty").

The opposite of the baby bonus?

 

[Bob Slydell]

I might do that, I'll be buying the '06 TT this weekend.

But I thought the "marriage penalty" was esentially eliminated? I thought that was a part of the Bush tax cut (about the only thing I liked about that tax cut, but that's another thread!)

Oh yeah, I forgot about that (probably because it didn't affect me ). You're right, essentially, it was eliminated.

 

[Bob Slydell]

The opposite of the baby bonus?

Which I'm liking this year.

 

[boomhauer]

If you have your last paychecks of 2005, you can use those in the meantime in lieu of your W-2's.

General rule of thumb is to expect a lower refund the year you get married (the so-called "marriage penalty").

I got married this year, and from my estimations, I'll be making about $1,000 more than I usually do.

It all has to do with how you file. If you file married, filing joint, and you have any children to claim (as I will), you get one large return (if you claimed -0- through the year, that is.)

Edited: Also keep in mind, you only get 1 refund. It will be much larger than your previous refunds, but instead of you and your spouse both getting one, it'll just be 1. I'm sure that's an obvious, just wanted to point out.

 

[Chicago526]

I got married this year, and from my estimations, I'll be making about $1,000 more than I usually do.

It all has to do with how you file. If you file married, filing joint, and you have any children to claim (as I will), you get one large return (if you claimed -0- through the year, that is.)

Edited: Also keep in mind, you only get 1 refund. It will be much larger than your previous refunds, but instead of you and your spouse both getting one, it'll just be 1. I'm sure that's an obvious, just wanted to point out.

No kiddies, and unless we have a surprise, we won't have any for 2006, either! Also, we each claimed 1 for 2005 (if we'd claimed 0 our refunds would have been really really high, I'd rather have a higher paycheck). Depending on how the taxes fall out this year, we may change to 0 for 2006.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[boomhauer]

I've always claimed -0-. I like getting a refund.

Again, it really all depends on how you file. You can file married, but do a seperate return. You're refund will be less. You can file married, joint, and your one refund will be larger than you would normally get.

 

[Chicago526]

I've always claimed -0-. I like getting a refund.

Again, it really all depends on how you file. You can file married, but do a seperate return. You're refund will be less. You can file married, joint, and your one refund will be larger than you would normally get.

We both got refunds with 1, they were just smaller than what we would have gotten with 0. I love refunds too, but I like a balance between money back and higher paychecks.

Again, thanks! I was just wondering what to expect!

 

[chesirechik]

DH & I both claim -0- and we always end up owing - two years in a row now, close to $1,000. I'm scared to see what it will be this year. Our taxes aren't even complicated! No kids and no house/property. I don't know what we are doing wrong.

 

[Bob Slydell]

DH & I both claim -0- and we always end up owing - two years in a row now, close to $1,000. I'm scared to see what it will be this year. Our taxes aren't even complicated! No kids and no house/property. I don't know what we are doing wrong.

You're not doing anything wrong. Without itemized deductions, it's possible to choose 0 and still owe at the end of the year. One way to avoid this is to specify and extra amount to be withheld each paycheck (it's an option on the W4 form).

 

[chesirechik]

Thanks Bob. I'm going to ask the HR person for a form. If I have an extra $50 taken out of each of our checks each month we should be fine for next year, I think. I don't even care about getting a refund at this point, I just don't want to owe!

 

[caitycaity]

It all has to do with how you file. If you file married, filing joint, and you have any children to claim (as I will), you get one large return (if you claimed -0- through the year, that is.)

the first year we were married, dh and i both claimed 0 (married, joint) and we ended up owing about $3000 (no kids, no house). shortly after we recovered from shock, we both adjusted to not only be 0, but also have an additional amount withheld from each of our paychecks. i think i have an extra $48/per paycheck and dh has something like that too. and we generally still owe.

i think it really depends on your individual situation.

 

[boomhauer]

I can't imagine claiming -0- and owing. To my knoeldge, I've never had any itemized deductions, other than the usual such as rent. That however, is only for state taxes.

I would assume when you make alot of money possibly, you don't get a refund. Beats me.

 

[Bob Slydell]

There's a worksheet at the end of this form for those who are interested in figuring out how to best fill out your W4:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf

 

[Geoff_M]

There can be another complication if you marry when one of you is still young enough to be declared as a dependant on your parents' 1040. I married my wife when she was 20. For that tax year, her father still had the legal option to claim her as an exemption. When we got married during the year didn't matter, if she was a dependant on Jan 1 of that tax year, her parents could claim her all year. If they did so, that would have prevented us from filing jointly and we would have had to file using the "Married, Filing Seperately" option and paid a LOT more in taxes than otherwise. There's also no legal rules about who has "dibs" on claiming a dependant. So basically, you have negotiate between your families. If you both try and claim the exemption, you'll be in hot water with the IRS.

 

[Chicago526]

There can be another complication if you marry when one of you is still young enough to be declared as a dependant on your parents' 1040. I married my wife when she was 20. For that tax year, her father still had the legal option to claim her as an exemption. When we got married during the year didn't matter, if she was a dependant on Jan 1 of that tax year, her parents could claim her all year. If they did so, that would have prevented us from filing jointly and we would have had to file using the "Married, Filing Seperately" option and paid a LOT more in taxes than otherwise. There's also no legal rules about who has "dibs" on claiming a dependant. So basically, you have negotiate between your parties. If you both try and claim the exemption, you'll be in hot water with the IRS.

Wow! Interesting, I never would have thought of that. Not an issue for us though, we are well out of our respective nests!

And thank goodness we own a home, I'd hate to see the tax bill if we didn't! The tax break alone makes owning a good deal, never mind building equity!