Is it better to file jointly or separately when married for 2025 taxes?
Hey everyone! This is my third year being married and I'm seriously confused about whether to file jointly or separately for our taxes this year. Last year we filed separately and I barely got anything back (though to be fair I was only working part-time for like 7 months). I use TurboTax for filing, and we have the added complication of filing in two different states since my spouse relocated for work. I seriously know next to nothing about taxes and could use any advice! Is there a big difference between filing jointly vs separately when you're married? Thx in advance!!
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Aurora St.Pierre
In most cases, filing jointly as a married couple will give you better tax benefits than filing separately. When you file jointly, you typically get higher deduction thresholds, access to certain tax credits that aren't available to separate filers, and often end up in a lower tax bracket overall. The main situations where filing separately might benefit you are: if one spouse has significant medical expenses (more than 7.5% of AGI), if one spouse has a lot of misc itemized deductions, if you're on an income-based student loan repayment plan, or if you're concerned about liability for your spouse's tax situation. Since you file in two different states, that adds another layer to consider, but it doesn't automatically mean separate filing is better. Many states have reciprocity agreements or offer credits for taxes paid to other states.
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Grace Johnson
•This is super helpful! But what if one spouse makes significantly more than the other? I've heard that can sometimes make filing separately better? Also does filing jointly make the return more complicated when you have to file in multiple states?
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Aurora St.Pierre
•The income disparity between spouses actually tends to favor joint filing in most cases. When there's a big difference in incomes, filing jointly often puts the higher earner in a lower tax bracket than they'd be in filing separately. This is one of the marriage benefits in the tax code. Filing in multiple states doesn't necessarily make the joint return more complicated than separate returns. You'd still need to file state returns for each state regardless of federal filing status. The state returns themselves might have slightly different requirements for joint vs. separate filers, but the overall process is similar. Most tax software like TurboTax handles multi-state filing pretty well for either status.
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Jayden Reed
After struggling with this exact same question last year, I ended up using a service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped analyze our tax situation and it turns out we were leaving serious money on the table by filing separately! It basically analyzed our previous returns and showed exactly how much we'd save by filing jointly. Super easy to use - you just upload your tax docs and it breaks everything down for you.
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Nora Brooks
•Does it actually give you accurate numbers? I tried those calculator things online before and they were way off compared to what I actually ended up with when filing.
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Eli Wang
•Is this something that's better than just letting TurboTax run the comparison? They have that "married filing jointly vs separately" calculator feature too, right?
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Jayden Reed
•It definitely gives accurate numbers - it's actually analyzing your real tax documents rather than just using the basic info you might put into a calculator. What makes it different is it looks at all the specific details in your forms that affect your unique situation. What sets it apart from TurboTax's comparison is that it looks beyond just the federal differences. It analyzes how your state taxes are affected too, especially when filing in multiple states like the original poster mentioned. It caught some state-specific credits we qualified for that the basic comparison tools missed completely.
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Eli Wang
Just wanted to follow up! I tried that taxr.ai site after seeing this comment, and wow - it showed we'd save over $1,800 by filing jointly instead of separately this year! It found some credits we qualified for that I had no idea about. The analysis broke down exactly why joint filing worked better for our situation with the multiple state thing. Honestly wish I'd known about this sooner, would've saved us money last year too.
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Cassandra Moon
If you're having trouble deciding and want to talk to an actual IRS agent about your specific situation, I'd recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was banging my head against the wall trying to get through to the IRS to ask questions about our multi-state filing situation - kept getting disconnected or waiting forever. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of the hours I wasted trying on my own. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c
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Zane Hernandez
•Wait, how does this actually work? I thought it was impossible to get through to the IRS these days. Can you explain the process a bit more?
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Genevieve Cavalier
•Yeah right. Nothing gets you through to the IRS faster. I've tried everything and always end up waiting for hours or getting disconnected. Sounds like a scam to me.
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Cassandra Moon
•The service basically secures your place in the IRS phone queue and then calls you once an agent is about to be available. It's like having someone wait on hold for you. You just enter your phone number, and they call you when they've nearly reached the front of the line - then you get connected directly to the IRS agent. It's definitely not a scam - I was super skeptical too. But it literally saved me hours of hold time. The IRS is actually reachable, it's just that their phone systems are completely overwhelmed. What this does is navigate through their phone tree and wait in the queue so you don't have to.
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Genevieve Cavalier
Ok so I need to eat my words here. After my skeptical comment I figured what the hell and tried that Claimyr thing since I was getting nowhere with the IRS on my own. Not gonna lie, I was shocked when I actually got a call back and was talking to an IRS agent within about 25 minutes. The agent answered my questions about filing jointly across multiple states and confirmed that in our case, joint filing would save us around $1,200. Just wanted to share since it actually worked.
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Ethan Scott
One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that sometimes filing separately can protect you from your spouse's tax issues. If your spouse has back taxes, default on student loans, unpaid child support, etc., filing jointly could put your refund at risk of being seized. Just something to consider.
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Christopher Morgan
•Omg thank you for bringing this up! My spouse actually does have some old student loan issues from before we were married. Would that definitely affect our joint return? How do I figure out if that's the case for us?
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Ethan Scott
•If your spouse has defaulted federal student loans, the Treasury can offset (take) your joint refund to apply it to that debt. This is what's called the Treasury Offset Program. Same goes for back child support, tax debts, etc. The best way to find out if this might affect you is to have your spouse call the Treasury Offset Program directly at 1-800-304-3107 and find out if they're in the system for any offsets. They can tell you exactly what debts might be subject to collection. Then you can decide if it's worth filing separately to protect your portion of the refund.
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Lola Perez
just wanted to add that TurboTax will actually calculate your return both ways (jointly and separately) and tell you which one saves you more money! I use it every year and it always compares them automatically. super easy.
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Nathaniel Stewart
•That's only for federal taxes though. It doesn't always catch all the state-specific differences when you file in multiple states. Learned that the hard way last year when we lost out on some state credits.
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Vanessa Chang
I went through this exact same dilemma when I got married! One thing that really helped me was creating a simple spreadsheet to track all our deductions and credits under both scenarios. Since you mentioned using TurboTax, definitely take advantage of their comparison feature, but also consider these factors: if either of you has high medical expenses, significant charitable donations, or if one spouse has much higher income than the other. The two-state situation actually isn't as complicated as it seems - most tax software handles it pretty smoothly regardless of filing status. My advice? Run the numbers both ways in TurboTax first, then if you're still unsure or the difference is small, consider getting a second opinion from a tax professional or one of those analysis tools others mentioned. Better to spend a little time now than leave money on the table!
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Jason Brewer
•This is really solid advice! I'm actually in a similar boat as the original poster - second year married and still figuring this stuff out. The spreadsheet idea is brilliant, I never thought to track everything that way before just relying on the software. Quick question though - when you say "if the difference is small," what would you consider a small difference? Like if joint vs separate only saves us $200-300, is that worth the potential complications, or should we be looking for bigger savings to make it worthwhile? Also totally agree about the two-state thing not being as scary as it sounds. I was dreading it last year but TurboTax walked me through it pretty smoothly.
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