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I am a single mom with a daughter at university and another one at home. Usually I get around $10,000 back in tax refund each year ( I just claim for myself throughout the year, and then file for head of household, and claim my mortgage interset etc. I then use this refund to pay for my daughters education. My boyfriend just proposed and wants to get married before the end of the year. I f I get married before Jan 1st will I then lose my tax refund for the 2009 tax year?
Hello jules, If you get married before the end of the 2009 tax year, then for 2009 you will have the choice of fiing a joint return with your husband, or you may choose to file as "married filing separate return". Since you have indicated that you claim your mortgage interest as a deduction, then I assume you must be itemizing your deductions, so your filing status is really not the issue here, as that mainly affects people who are claiming the standard deduction. How this will ultimately affect any refund you have coming will really depend on how much income your husband has, and how much he has withheld in taxes from his paychecks. If you file a joint return, you will have to pay taxes based on your combined income and expenses. And as I am sure you must know, the percent of tax that you pay increases as your income bracket increases. For married couples, the income brackets are doubled for what a single taxpayer would be, because there are two people reporting incomes, so it may not be an issue. But again, it will really depend on just how much income your husband has and how much tax he is having withheld from his checks. The higher your husband's salary is, the more of an effect this could have on any refund you would receive if you file a joint return. However, if you file a separate return and you itemize your deductions, then your refund should continue to be the same as it has been in the past. When you are married and file separate returns, there are certain tax credits which you are not allowed to claim, such as the child care credit, so if you have child care expenses this might be an issue for you. You also lose the ability to claim the Earned Income Credit, but it does not sound as though in your situation you have been claiming this credit anyway, so again, this may have no affect on you filing a separate return. The only other issue with filing separate returns is that if you choose to do this, then both spouses must either itemize their deductions or claim the standard deduction. You cannot each do one or the other. If you itemize your deductions to claim your mortgage interest and other allowed expenses, your husband would have to itemize as well. And if he does not have enough deductions on his own to make it worth his while to itemize, then he may be the one who actually loses ground, because he would not even get the benefit of his full standard deduction. What you would really need to do is fill out some tax forms based on each filing status, and get an estimate of what your refund would be in each scenario. That is the only way you can get an accurate estimate of where you might stand at the end of the year. Thank you jules, and let me know if you have more questions. I am happy to help you with whatever I can.
OK so I earn @ $90 k per year as a nurse, my son at home is 15 so there are no child care expenses, I also pay an additional $200 per month on my W4. I do itemize my deductions, which is how I manage to get so much back each year.
My boyfriend earns $175 K and I believe he earns too much to be able to itemize. He also has a mortgage and pays $2250 per month in child support
If I file married but filing separately will I still be able to claim the head of household etc? or will they take into account his salary and I lose my refund, also do they take into account how many weeks you have been single/married in that tax year?
Hello again jules, First of all, regarding the filing status of Head of Household versus married filing separately, that is really not going to be what has an affect on you. When you choose your filing status, that is what determines your allowed standard deduction. But for someone like you who itemizes your deductions anyway, and does not end up claiming the standard deduction, then your filing status as HOH or single or married or anything else really does not matter. In other words, for the tax year 2009 if you claim HOH status, your allowed standard dedcution would be $8,350. If you file as married filing a separate return, then your allowed standard deduction is only $5,700. But if you are going to itemize, and your itemized deductions end up being say $10,000, then that is what you end up claiming, regardless of the allowed standard deduction. So claiming HOH would only be an issue if you were claiming the standard deduction, as it would be higher than what is allowed for a married person filing a separate return. As far as whether or not they take into account how many weeks you were single or married in the year, the answer to that is, no they do not. Even if you get married on December 31st, 2009, for tax purposes you are considered to be married for the entire 2009 tax year, and will be taxed on that basis. Your husband can still itemize his deductions. There is no such thing as "earning too much" to be able to itemize. His income is high enough that he may end up paying some additional taxes which people in lower brackets do not pay, but he can still itemize. So the fact that both of you will be able to itemize is a good thing, because it will not put your husband at any disadvantage from that standpoint. With his income being so high, if you file a joint return, then this will most definitely put you in a much higher bracket, and would not doubt have some affect on the refund you receive. But here again, it really depends on how much tax your husband has withheld from his checks. Your refund is based not only on how much you actually owe for tax each year, but also on how much you had withheld from your checks. You indicated in your first post that you are having extra money withheld from your paychecks, which certainly attributes to why you receive a large refund. If your husband does not do the same, and if he normally owes money at the end of the year, then part of the extra money you are having withheld in tax will go towards satisfying what he may owe if he did not have enough withheld from his checks to cover what he owes. My recommendation would be to file your returns as married filing separate returns. This will keep each of you in the same tax brackets as you have been in the past, and you should then continue to receive the same refund as you normally receive. Since you have no child care expenses that you would lose, then filing a separate return will not have any different affect on your tax situation then it was when you filed as head of household. If this was helpful please press the Accept button. Positive feedback is also appreciated. Thank you jules, and let me know if you have more questions.
Accountant
25+ years tax consulting. Specializing in returns for US citizens living abroad