General Question
Pros and cons of filing joint vs. separate tax returns?
I got married in May of this year. Since tax season will be here before we know it, I’m wondering if we should file our taxes together or separate and what the difference is.
I only worked a few months out of the year because I’m a full time college student. He’ll be bringing home about $50K this year. We’re purchasing a home (in his name only) that will close mid-September.
We’ve had very simple tax returns in the past. I usually do it online myself for both of us. Until now, we didn’t own anything except our vehicles and we have no children, investments, deductions, etc.
I don’t know if it matters, but he’s listed as married with 1 deduction on his W4 and I haven’t worked since we’ve been married, so my W4 for the year stated single with 1 deduction. Should we keep our deductions at 1 each? We don’t want to owe at the end of the year and we like the chunk of change we get in the form of a refund each year, but he gets over 30% of his check taken out each week and, since he’s supporting me and we’re buying a home, we can use all the money we can get throughout the year.
So, what are the pros and cons of filing a joint tax return?
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