Is it smarter to get married for tax purposes or stay single?
May 6th, 2010My girlfriend and I just found out that she is due in Feb. 2010. We wanted to know if we would get a bigger tax deduction as a married couple or if we were to both stay single and file? Does the government give bigger deductions to single or married parents?
Replys
I can’t think of a worse reason to get married.
If you have no children it will be a wash either way as long as your incomes are each below about $80k per year. The difference in total tax liability will be pocket change.
If either or both of you have children and currently file as Head of Household and your incomes are below about $30k each, getting married will cost you dearly at tax time.
It depends.
For some couples it makes very little difference but for others in can swing a couple of thousand dollars in either direction.
Forget money get married for the sake of the kid.
To get married you have to like the person and want to live with, and maybe a wedding can come later.
The answer to your question requires specific income and circumstance information. Some couples are receiving more favorable returns married while other do better as single. Keep in mind that the decision to marry has other consideration than just income tax implications.
Tax reasons are a poor reason to get married or not, unless you’re deciding whether to marry on Dec 31 or Jan 1.
That said, though, the tax can go either way if you’re married or not – depends among other things on how much each of you earns – so you’d have to figure it both ways to know for sure.
And if the baby doesn’t arrive until 2010, it won’t make any difference when you file next year for 2009 anyway.
The answer is always maybe. Figure it both ways. Tax issues aside, being married provides other benefits that shacking up doesn’t.
Well it is not very smart to get married for tax purposes. In fact that is about the dumbest reason to get married. Stay single since you asked this question.
You get a bigger deduction as a married couple and then you get the added bonus for children. You as head of household will have two added deductions……………….a wife and child. Your wife, (if she has an income) will file with you jointly and you will report them together but separately. Look at this past years tax booklet tax tables and see the difference for a single persons tax obligation compared to a couple filing jointly with the same amount for an income. In other words add your two incomes together ($40,000.) see what a single person pays and then look in the other column and see what married filing jointly pays for the same amount. Get married, but only for the right reasons and not the tax benefit it will offer.
depending on the situation yes you could get more money back but your child would need to be born before 2010, no later than december 31,st at midnight.
My husband and I chose to remain unmarried because he has past due obligations of child support and if we filed joint and married they’d take my money away as well and filing for injured spouse can take a long time and you are not always guaranteed a lot back.
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