Married Filing Taxes Joint or Seperate?

[kilee]

I want to get the most out of our tax return. We've always filed jointly. However, in 2009 my husband made a whopping $130.00. Yep.....that's it. I've been reading and it looks like we might do better if we file separately.

How do you file and why?

 

[quentina]

You don't have to pay for turbo tax until the end when you decide to file. You can plug in all the numbers each way and see which way is best.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The greater the difference in income, the more important it is to file jointly.

First of all, you would effectively lose the full value of the Personal Exemption, which is $3,650.

If one person itemizes in MFS, both people must itemize, so you could not get away with you itemizing and his using the standard deduction. If you do not itemize, you would lose his $5,700 Standard Deduction.

The only time MFS is worthwhile, which happened to me twice in many years, is if one of the two, especially if it is the one with the lower income, has very high unreimbursed medical or miscellaneous expenses. Over many years my income averaged about $25K higher than my wife's. One year she had a lot of dental work done and one year she had employment related legal fees; in those two years it was beneficial for us to file separately. In both of these instances due to the floor on medical and miscellaneous deductions we were able to deduct a much greater amount due to the much lower floor on her return than on a joint return. It was interesting to apportion out the remainder of the itemized deductions to keep the combined tax as low as possible.

Mike (CPA Retired)

 

[wdwfan16]

Jointly is usually the way to go unless one person has most of the deductions. Medical would be one one reason to file separately with the 7.5% AGI rule.


ETA: Did your DH get unemployment? If so, that will be taxable at the Federal level. It maybe taxable at the state level.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I agree with the others; jointly is almost certainly going to be your best option.

Because you have a very large disparity in incomes (I'm assuming that you made a lot more than $130), you actually get a marriage tax benefit. The marriage tax penalty that you always here about is for dual income families. My wife has no earned income and our taxes are much, much lower than they would be if we were each single.

 

[Art 1]

Filing jointly works best for us. Fill out your taxes both ways and see what's best.

 

[kilee]

I made about $65,000 this last year and he does not have any unemployment. He did not work most of the year due to health issue's and received no compensation for it. Thankfully we live in an area w/ a lower cost of living (compared to many other areas) and my income is adequate to support us.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We do joint for Federal and separate for the state. My wife and I make about the same amount, TurboTax says it's better that way.

 

[golfgal]

What if the kids had major medical bills-we have 2 in braces, would it make sense to file separately for that? Since I am a business owner my deductions bring my actual "income" down quite a bit. Could I claim the kids and the medical deductions, etc. and DH claim all the house stuff?

 

[stm61]

Does anyone know if money received from selling trees to a logging company is taxable? We live in SC and our property is zoned agricultural. I've been trying to get an answer locally and haven't had much luck.

 

[wdwfan16]

What if the kids had major medical bills-we have 2 in braces, would it make sense to file separately for that? Since I am a business owner my deductions bring my actual "income" down quite a bit. Could I claim the kids and the medical deductions, etc. and DH claim all the house stuff?

You can claim all medical and business deductions that are yours. You have to split the rest with your DH. You DH has to claim he medical deductions.

For example the year we did this we each got to claim 1/2 of the health insurance premiums we paid. We did this before we had kids, so I am not 100% sure on the kids but it would seem logical it would work the same way.

 

[bumbershoot]

Does anyone know if money received from selling trees to a logging company is taxable? We live in SC and our property is zoned agricultural. I've been trying to get an answer locally and haven't had much luck.

I can't imagine why it would not be taxable.

But I've sent the question to a friend of mine whose dad did that in the midwest while my friend was a kid. I'm pretty sure he paid taxes, as you are selling your property.

Meanwhile, have you looked thoroughly on the IRS website? They have tons of info there!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Professional tax preparer here. Go joint!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Does anyone know if money received from selling trees to a logging company is taxable? We live in SC and our property is zoned agricultural. I've been trying to get an answer locally and haven't had much luck.

For federal,it depends on how much money you made, to determine if it's taxable. If I remember right, I THINK the cutoff is around $1000. Check Schedule C-EZ.

 

[bumbershoot]

Does anyone know if money received from selling trees to a logging company is taxable? We live in SC and our property is zoned agricultural. I've been trying to get an answer locally and haven't had much luck.

While waiting to hear from my friend, I googled "irs sale timber" and found some sites; some IRS pages, some other pages. Could be helpful. Also found this page.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

You will receive a Form 1099-S from the purchaser of the timber. Depending o other circumstances it will either be reported on Form 4797, Sale of Business Proeprty, or Schedule D of Form 1040 as Long Term Capital Gain. It definitely is taxable, and you may need to consult a tax professional at least for the filling out of the necessary forms.

 

[stm61]

Thanks for the information everyone. I figured it probably was taxable. Maybe I can off-set it by replanting since it is zoned Agricultural? I'm trying to find a local accountant that has a clue about timber but not having much luck. It takes 20-30 yrs for the trees to reach this size so we won't be cutting again, but maybe setting up something to track replanting expenses will help over the next few yrs.