Post # 1

Member
7081 posts
Busy Beekeeper
I met with a financial planner today. We were discussing plans for my 401K, since I’m starting a "new" job in July and getting married. One of the things the planner brought up was the issue of joint filing of taxes.
The guy walked me through the different 2009 tax brackets and helped me calculate which tax bracket we’d be in. I’ve heard a lot of talk about "marriage penalty", but it appears that we won’t really get hit with one.
Did you end up with a "marriage penalty"? Did you do your taxes by yourself or with an accountant? I fear our stuff is going to become much more complicated and we may need professional help. Any words of advice?
Post # 3

Member
2004 posts
Buzzing bee
I did our taxes on turbo tax, which shows you right away the amounts you’ll pay under various filing statuses. We had a complicated situation where we filed married-jointly at the federal level but married-separately at the state level (yes, you are allowed to do this). We saved a bundle this way, although it was a major pain to get it to work with the software. My advice is to start doing your taxes early so that you are not rushed.
Post # 4

Member
765 posts
Busy bee
We used an accountant since both of us are independent contractors. We had way too many write offs to handle ourselves. We didn’t get hit with a marriage penalty but he did recommend we both file claim single and 0 when we are at jobs that deduct taxes. That way we won’t owe.
Post # 5

Member
4 posts
Wannabee
we met with a tax professional and filed jointly married ….we got back over 3 thousand by doing so and next year will get back even more …highly recommend fiiling jointly married if you can =)