October 2010 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Filing Taxes for 2010
Any advice on how to file since our status' have all changed?
Both DH and I have our taxes set up so that we have more money taken out now for taxes and then typically get a refund.
My SIL actually just mentioned last night about filing taxes. According to her, we should file our status as married, not file separately (not joint). I guess their first year they filed married-joint and ended up owing $3K. She said that we?ll get more back if we filed married-separate until we have kids. When you have kids, you get deductions so we should file together/joint.
Can anyone confirm this?
Re: Filing Taxes for 2010
This is why for the first time we are going to go to an accountant. It can get confusing. They know what to do to get you the most money back. I
n general my family has all said once you are married you always get more money back than single and yes when you have kids you get even more back.
We are filing married, jointly. I am not sure the reasons, but Mike figured out it's more beneficial for us to do it this way. He deals with financial plans all day every day, so I trust that he knows what will get us the most back.
We're going to model it out with both scenarios on TurboTax... DH typically has a ton of deductions (house/mortgage), where I typically used the 1040EZ. I'm a little bit scared of the numbers, as I generally have zero withholdings and have a bit of extra money taken out at each pay period to avoid having to pay the government - it's going to be really interesting to see final numbers.
We'll see what TurboTax shows will be best for us...
This is what we are doing as well. I am pretty sure that married-jointly is the best option for us, but we are going to run it as married-filing separate as well, just to see.
I'm thinking we'll be filing married, jointly. We've used an accountant since we purchased the house and both of us are listed on the mortgage/title.
The thing I'm worried about is this is the first year we have to start paying back the tax credit that we got as first time homebuyers through the fed gov't. I will admit I'm a bit jealous of those who purchased their homes later and got the credit without having to pay it back.
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Great ideas on running the dual scenarios girls.
My taxes are typically straight forward and I always file for myself on HR Block. DH has only been working 2 years and FIL always does his filing for him (it's kind of ridic.).
I'll be interesting to see how ours work out. In all reality, I would really prefer FIL not know my personal information, like how much I make!
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We're still not sure what we're going to do. MIL thinks that we should go to an accountant to see what we can get back. But I think that I am going to try both of the senarios out on Turbo Tax as well and then we'll see what happens from there.
We do both own our house so I'm not sure how hairy it's going to get.
No. Unless you own a business or have very special circumstances, I was told filing married but separate is not good, you'll end up owing more. I know I'm getting screwed with taxes from here on out because DH is in a different tax bracket than I am. But that's why we're going to talk to a professional. (If you end up spending more than $500 on tax prep you can also deduct that.)
Currently, we're still withholding at the single rate, and when I switch my W-4 I'll probably have my withholdings changed to "married, but withhold at higher single rate."
40/112
$hit, I didn't even think of this. DH and I are in different brackets too (after a quick google search). Wow, that will complicate things, won't it?
Hm, looks like the fact that indivudually we're in different brackets doesn't matter b/c it's total income...and based on that, it definitely looks like we pay less filling married-jointly
Here's my reference (which I realize, may not be the best, but for a quick search): http://www.obliviousinvestor.com/tax-brackets/
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So I ran some quick numbers based on the previous link I posted, and purely on the numbers (no deductions or anything), we'd owe:
Married-separately: $19,042
Married-jointly: $14,613
Compared to our total tax owed if we filed 'Single': $15012
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Thanks! We're in severely different brackets, so I think that on my end, I would normally get a big refund, but combined with his income, we jump up so much that we're probably not getting any back, you know? But I'll run the numbers!
40/112
Ugh, that's frustrating! But I think overall/combined you shouldn't be that different. Hopefully?!
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Me too! We have both had the same job all year and my last name is totally changed but I am not on the mortgage. This is the frist year that we have had a house payment all year so we should get a decent amount back from the interest paid. I am planning to run ours separately and together on Turbo Tax also to see what happens. I think I will go take a look at the link Hannah posted also.
Looks like it works out to about the same either way for us. DH's income added to mine, bumps us into the next tax bracket, so that sucks. If he made like 5K less, we'd save 8K. No fair.
Only problem is I have changed my name on my license, ss#, and bank account. Although I provided them with all the necessary paperwork the first week of November, work still has not changed my name! So, my W-2 will have my maiden name. I usually get direct-deposit refund in the past. This sounds like a problem waiting to happen?
If anyone is looking for an accountant let me know. My accountant is located in MA, but has been doing my taxes for quite a while. She told me that she would give the friends and family discount to anyone who was referred by me.
It is a Jackson-Hewitt south of boston (Bellingham) Jeanne Berube is the owner. Tell her Destiny sent you! I know she'd love the business and a break on tax prep is always welcome in my opinion. I mail her mine and she calls me with questions even years I think I'll owe money, she manages to save the day.
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Hannah thanks for posting the link, it's really helpful!
I've been bracing for taxes to be a major PITA. But I have been paying quarterly local taxes, so I hope that'll help overall. Good luck girls, post as you work through it and let us know what you figure out!
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