Is it better to get married or stay single for tax benefits with future kids?

Tax professional here! This is actually a common question, and there's no one-size-fits-all answer as it depends on your specific financial situation. Generally speaking, marriage can offer tax benefits when there's a significant income disparity between partners. If one of you earns substantially more than the other, filing jointly often results in a lower overall tax burden compared to both filing as singles. However, if you both earn similar higher incomes, you might face what's called the "marriage penalty" where your combined income pushes you into a higher tax bracket than you'd be in separately. As for the single parent benefits - the parent with custody can file as "Head of Household" which offers better tax rates than filing as single and a higher standard deduction. Plus, that parent can claim child-related tax credits like the Child Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Credit. One thing to consider: if you're not legally married but living together with children, only ONE of you can claim Head of Household status and the child-related benefits.

I went through a similar situation last year and found this awesome tool that helped me figure out the best option. Check out https://taxr.ai - it lets you compare different filing scenarios side by side. I was able to input my income and my partner's, then compare what our taxes would look like married vs me filing as head of household with our kid. The tool basically showed us that in our case, me filing as head of household was actually saving us about $2,300 annually because of our specific income levels and credits I qualified for. What's cool is that it explained exactly why the difference existed, not just the bottom line.

Just wanted to follow up - I tried the taxr.ai tool that was mentioned and wow, it was eye-opening! I was able to run multiple scenarios with different income splits between me and my partner, plus adding future kids to the calculation. For our specific situation (I make about 60% more than my partner), getting married actually saves us around $3,100 in taxes annually once we have a child. The tool clearly showed how the married filing jointly standard deduction and expanded tax brackets benefited our particular income spread. The visualization showing exactly where the tax savings came from was super helpful. Definitely made me feel more confident about our decision!

One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that taxes are just one factor to consider. I found this out the hard way - tried calling the IRS to understand my options as an unmarried parent, and was on hold for HOURS. Used https://claimyr.com after seeing their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c and they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. The agent explained that being unmarried with kids creates more paperwork situations where you might need to contact the IRS directly - like determining who claims the child when you're not married but both supporting the child. With married filing jointly, it's more straightforward. Also, if one of you stays home with the kids eventually, being married gives the non-working spouse access to retirement benefits they wouldn't have otherwise.

I need to eat my words from yesterday. After getting another notice from the IRS about my dependent claim (I'm in a similar unmarried with kids situation), I was desperate enough to try Claimyr. Not gonna lie, I was 100% sure it was going to be a waste of time or some kind of scam. But within about 20 minutes, my phone rang and I was talking to an actual IRS agent! No waiting on hold for 3 hours listening to the same terrible music. The agent explained that for unmarried parents, there are specific rules about who can claim the child as a dependent which matters HUGELY for tax benefits. If we had been married, this whole issue wouldn't have happened. Definitely something for the OP to consider beyond just the basic tax rate differences.

Something else to consider is that marriage affects more than just taxes. My husband and I chose to legally marry even though the tax situation was slightly better for us unmarried, because: 1. Health insurance - my employer's family plan was way cheaper than his individual plan, but we needed to be legally married for him to qualify 2. Hospital/medical rights - being legally married gives you automatic rights if your partner is sick/injured 3. Social Security benefits for survivor if one of you passes 4. Property ownership and inheritance is much cleaner when married Not saying you have to get married, but there's definitely more to consider than just the tax angle.

Just a quick thought - have you considered running the numbers both ways? My partner and I got "unofficial married" years ago but kept filing separately until we had our daughter. That first year with a kid, we ran the taxes both ways and discovered we'd save about $4k by filing married. The main advantage came from being able to combine our incomes which let us qualify for more of the child tax credit and child care credits.

Great question! I was in almost the exact same situation a few years ago. My partner and I did a ton of research on this, and here's what we found: The biggest factor is your income levels. If you have similar incomes (especially if both are on the higher side), staying unmarried might actually save you money due to the marriage penalty. But if there's a significant income gap, marriage usually wins out. One thing that really surprised me: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) can be much better for single filers in certain income ranges. If one of you qualifies for EITC as a single parent, that alone could make staying unmarried worth thousands. Also consider timing - you don't have to make this decision permanently. Some couples I know got legally married after their second kid when the math clearly favored it, or when one partner's income changed significantly. My advice: use one of those tax comparison tools mentioned earlier to run your specific numbers, but also think about the non-tax factors. We ended up getting legally married because the peace of mind around medical decisions and automatic inheritance rights was worth more to us than the potential tax savings. Every situation is different, but you're smart to think about this ahead of time rather than just assuming marriage is always better financially!