Is it better to file jointly or separately for newlyweds with similar incomes?

Filing jointly is typically more beneficial for most married couples, even with similar high incomes. When you file jointly, you get higher standard deduction ($29,200 for 2025 tax year vs $14,600 each if filing separately), and you'll qualify for more tax credits and deductions that are reduced or eliminated for married filing separately. The main exceptions where filing separately might benefit you are: if one spouse has significant medical expenses (over 7.5% of AGI), substantial miscellaneous itemized deductions, or if one spouse has income-based student loan payments. Since you didn't mention any of these situations, filing jointly will likely save you money. Also, since you're both high earners with similar incomes, you probably won't face much of a "marriage penalty" that sometimes affects couples when both have high, similar incomes. I'd recommend running your taxes both ways to compare, but joint filing will almost certainly come out ahead.

After reading through all the tax filing advice here, I wanted to share how taxr.ai helped me with a similar situation last year. My husband and I were also newlyweds with comparable salaries, and I was stressing about whether to file jointly or separately. I uploaded our previous tax returns and W-2s to https://taxr.ai and their AI analyzed our specific situation, including some student loans I'm paying off. The tool showed me a side-by-side comparison of both filing options with actual numbers for our situation. Turns out filing jointly saved us about $3,200 even though I initially thought separate would be better because of my student loans. The analysis explained exactly why joint filing worked better for us and pointed out deductions we would have missed.

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after questioning it earlier. I decided to give it a try with our info since we were also newly married with similar salaries. Honestly, I was impressed! The analysis was really thorough and showed us that joint filing would save us about $2,800 even though I was convinced separate would be better because of my wife's medical deductions. What surprised me most was how it explained the tax implications in plain English and showed exactly how different scenarios would play out. It even identified a work-from-home deduction I would have completely missed. Definitely made our decision clear with actual numbers instead of just generic advice.

If you're struggling to get actual tax advice from the IRS to confirm your filing status decision, I highly recommend trying Claimyr. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to the IRS about a similar married filing question (plus some complications with my previous filing status) and kept hitting dead ends with the automated system. I found https://claimyr.com and was super skeptical, but their service actually got me connected to a real IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of the hours I was spending getting nowhere. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent I spoke with clarified exactly how being married for part of the year affected my filing options and confirmed that joint filing would be significantly better in my situation.

I need to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it, I got desperate when I couldn't get through to the IRS about my marriage filing status question for the third time. Decided to try it as a last resort and... it actually worked exactly as advertised. Their system called me back in about 45 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent answered all my specific questions about filing jointly vs separately with our income levels, and cleared up confusion about some deductions we were eligible for as a newly married couple. Saved me literally days of frustration. I'm still shocked that it worked so well after all my failed attempts to reach someone.

One thing nobody mentioned yet - the tax brackets for married filing jointly vs. separately. With both of you having similar high incomes, you might actually pay more tax filing jointly than if you were both single (the so-called "marriage penalty"). But married filing separately usually won't solve this - it often makes things worse because you lose many tax benefits. Have you checked if either of you has any unusual deductions? Like if one of you has really high medical expenses or casualty losses that exceed the AGI threshold? That's one of the few scenarios where separate might win.

another thing to consider - state taxes! some states treat joint vs separate differently than federal. when we got married, filing jointly saved us on federal but filing separately was slightly better for state taxes. its annoying but you can actually file differently for state vs federal in some places, check your state rules!

Late to the party but another option: calculate your taxes ALL THREE WAYS! Run the numbers as: 1. Married filing jointly 2. Married filing separately 3. As if you were both still single (for comparison) This will show you the exact marriage penalty/bonus in your situation. My wife and I have similar incomes to you guys ($170k and $135k) and we found filing jointly saved us about $3,800 compared to separate even though we have the "penalty" compared to when we were single. Tax software makes this pretty easy to model different scenarios.

Great advice from everyone here! As someone who went through this exact situation two years ago (similar incomes, newly married), I can confirm that running the calculations both ways is absolutely worth it. One thing I'd add that hasn't been mentioned much - don't forget about retirement account contribution limits if you're both maxing out 401(k)s. The income limits for IRA deductibility change when you're married filing jointly, and with your combined income around $320k, you might lose the ability to deduct traditional IRA contributions that you could make when single. Also, if either of you contributes to an HSA, those limits and eligibility rules can change too. We ended up saving about $4,200 by filing jointly despite losing some deductions we had when single. The higher standard deduction and avoiding the loss of various credits made joint filing the clear winner for us. Definitely echo the suggestion to use tax software to model both scenarios - seeing the actual dollar difference makes the decision much easier than trying to figure it out theoretically!