Weddingbee boards

If both you and your spouse are employed, consider taking the time NOW to change your W-4 and adjusting your withholding tax as necessary.  You can use the IRS's tool to estimate what you'll owe next year:

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/page/0,,id=14806,00.html

WHY is this important?  Because even though you may not be getting married until 12/12/12, the IRS considers that you and your new spouse will have been married the ENTIRE year. 

For FH and I, this means a huge tax hit, because we both make about the same money.  (For couples with significantly different salary amounts, you won't get hit as hard - and you may even benefit!)  So at the beginning of the year, we went ahead and adjusted our W-4s and had additional tax taken out each week.

If we had waited until when we get married to figure out how much to withhold, it would mean that for the rest of the year a huge chunk of our paychecks would be gone.

No matter which route you go, do make sure you figure out the withholding difference by the end of the year so you don't get stuck oweing interest on the outstanding taxes.

Very good point! I am a CPA and my husband and I both changed our W-4's in January 2011 even though we didn't get married untill August 2011.

@JustMarried51912:  There is a so called "marriage penalty". you can just google it and read about it. its hard to know what your exact situation will be, depends on a lot of things. i would say to try and use the IRS tax calculator below to help you fill out your W-4 properly. but - yes, the idea is to have more take home pay vs. getting a large refund on 4/15.

Here is the tax calculator - http://www.irs.gov/individuals/page/0,,id=14806,00.html

@lunathea:  you cannot have -0- withholdings. the IRS is at least withholding something. you might have -0- allowances, but that is something different. try that calculator i posted above. that should help you figure out your situation. 

@JustMarried51912:  Use the calculator - the difference in your take home varies depending upon your salary and your FH's.

@cwat12: You likely won't lose much money, so you probably will get a refund next year. I wouldn't worry about it until the fall.

Thanks for the tip!!  Saving this thread to my favorites for 2013...

I am confused.  I claim 0 so I can get a lot back and my fiance claims 1. He makes 4 times as much as I do. He owed like 4000 in 2010 and hasn't done his taxes for 2011. We will be getting married in March 2012, should I tell him to change his W4 to claim 0 so we get a lot back??

@andersonsarah:  All of this matters based on your salary.  So it's hard to give you advice other than to use the IRS calculator (linked at the top) in order to find out what you owe.  Use it as if you are calculating the tax for both of you as if you're already married -- because for tax purposes, you already are!  (Not really, but by the time tax time comes next year, the IRS will have considered you to have been married the whole year.)

But my GUESS is that if you claim 0 and you owe nothing as a single person, and your fiance as a single person claims 1 and owes a whole lot, that it would even out once you claim "married."  Do the calculator to be sure!

@mittens111211:  Hmm...hard to tell without salary context.  My guess is you and your husband make similar salary amounts?

On your W-4s, you may need to use the "Married but use Single Rate" designation, which taxes you at the higher rate.

@mrsbruff2b: I don't know!  Should I edit the topic name?

@everyone else: A disclaimer:  I'm not a CPA or tax attorney, I just like planning ahead! :)

@zagora:  I tried and it's really confusing... I'll try to figure it out when I am not at work haha

@love108:  Yes - it honestly doesn't matter, except that you just have to deal with the consequences of any tax owed come April 15. :)

@andersonsarah:  If you really are having a hard time with the math, your safest bet would be to change your W-4 to "Married at the Single Rate" and both put 0 allowances. 

FH and I did that.  But we had also done the calculation and realized we'd still owe a chunk at the end of the year because of the marriage penalty, so we're also having an extra amount of cash withheld from each of our paychecks.

Thanks for bringing this up.  FI usually owes and I usually get back as singles.  Good thing to look into!

@galloway111:  Salaries matter, so there's no correct answer without knowing that answer.

But the less your two salaries will be, the less that switching your filing status matters.  The CPA will have to chime in again, but I would think that if your salaries will both be less than $40k you won't have to worry about changing early.

Also, I would assume you don't have lots of taxes taken out now because you're in school and working part time.  So no need to worry too much since it would have a marginal effect.

If you are concerned, per above, you can change your W-4 to the married but use the single rate designation and claim 0 allowances.  If you pay too much in taxes this year, you'll see a refund next year.  Use a paycheck calculator to see what the difference would be from your current paychecks.

What are the pros and cons of filing jointly or filing separetely? I've never understood this.

@Lee_Ann:  There are articles on this, but generally people file separately for 3 reasons:

1. They need to be shielded from liability - like if a spouse doesn't want to be responsible for a tax-cheating spouse
2. They'reconsidering filing for divorce - easier to start tracking separately 
3. One spouse makes very little and has tons of medical bills - easier to meet the 7.5% threshold for deduction

@zagora:  You had really good tips for everyone! You should be a CPA if you arent one already!

The tough part about this is that each person's scenario is different. So blanket advice doesnt really work. Since it's really early in the year, it might make sense for some of you to just leave your withholding as is for now and then to revisit this in June or September when you have a better idea of what you and your spouse's total income will be.  It's always better to over-withhold than under-withhold...  cause you don't want to end up owing on 4/15.

Disclaimer: I am a CPA currently working in public accounting, but I am just providing general guidelines and not addressing anyone's individual situation.

@kolsen206:  What are your thoughts on using a CPA the first year filing as a married couple?  A must if you're using deductions, or okay to DIY if you've done your own taxes for awhile?

Is it beneficial to do this if one of us makes an average income and one of us (me) makes about $12000/yr after deductions?  Or is it only helpful in two-income situations?

@bells219:  I assume by "after deductions" you mean "after taxes" - e.g., take home pay.

Well, you should change your W-4 at some point this year, but you're likely not going to have an additional tax burden after marriage and might actually get a tax break! 

My advice on checking early was more for the people who are going to owe a ton (people like me who make the same as my FH), so they can more evenly distribute the tax liability over the course of a year.

But you may want to do the calculations early in case you'll be paying too much in taxes - that way you can have less taken out of your paycheck instead of waiting for your rebate next year.