Should I file jointly with my spouse (22f) or should her parents claim her as dependent? We're both college students

Hi there! I can help clarify this situation for you. When you're deciding between filing jointly or separately with your new spouse, there are several factors to consider. First, regarding the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOC): Someone can only claim this credit for a student if they also claim that student as a dependent. So if her parents claim her as a dependent, they would get the AOC, not her. For her parents to claim her as a dependent, she would need to meet the qualifying child requirements, which include being under 24 and a full-time student. However, there's a key exception: married individuals who file a joint return with their spouse generally CANNOT be claimed as dependents by their parents. If you file separately, her parents could potentially claim her as a dependent only if she doesn't file her own return or only files to get a refund of withheld income tax or estimated tax. Regarding FAFSA, you're correct that for federal student aid purposes, her marital status makes her independent regardless of tax dependency status. However, filing status can impact your AGI, which does affect aid calculations for subsequent years. Filing jointly generally provides better tax benefits for married couples compared to filing separately, including potentially higher standard deductions, certain credits, and retirement contribution options.

I went through something similar last year and found a really helpful tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out the best filing strategy for my situation. It analyzed both our options - filing jointly vs. separately with my parents claiming my spouse - and showed us the exact dollar difference between each scenario. In our case, we discovered that filing jointly actually saved us about $800 more than we would have saved with my parents claiming my spouse as a dependent. The tool catches things like the marriage penalty/bonus and eligibility for various credits that are easy to miss when you're just looking at the AOC by itself. It also helped us understand the FAFSA implications beyond just the immediate tax year, which was a huge relief since we were both still in school too.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) after trying it based on the recommendation here. It was seriously eye-opening for our student/married situation! We discovered we'd actually lose about $1,750 by filing separately and having the parents claim my spouse compared to filing jointly. The analysis showed we qualified for additional credits beyond just the AOC when filing jointly that would have been reduced or eliminated with separate filing. The tool also projected how our choices this year would affect next year's FAFSA eligibility with specific dollar amounts, which no tax preparer had ever shown us before. Absolutely worth checking out if you're in this specific married student situation - it caught things I wouldn't have considered on my own.

Hey there! I was in an almost identical situation last year. After trying unsuccessfully to get through to the IRS for clarification (spent HOURS on hold), I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in less than 20 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed that in our situation, filing jointly was significantly better than having my wife's parents claim her. She explained that the married filing separately status has several disadvantages that weren't obvious at first, including lower standard deduction and restrictions on several credits beyond just the education ones. The most valuable insight was learning about how filing separately would affect our student loan repayment options down the road - something I hadn't even considered!

Coming back to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After struggling to get through to the IRS for THREE DAYS about my education credits situation (very similar to yours), I decided to try it despite my skepticism. The service actually worked exactly as described - I got a call back in about 15 minutes connecting me directly to an IRS representative who answered all my questions about claiming education credits as a married student vs. having parents claim them. Turns out my parents claiming me as a dependent (even though I'm married) would have cost us over $2,500 in total tax benefits compared to filing jointly with my spouse. The IRS agent walked through all the calculations with me and explained exactly which benefits we'd lose. Honestly wish I hadn't wasted days trying to call them myself first!

Something important to consider: if your wife's parents claim her as a dependent AND she files her own return (separate from you), the IRS system will flag this as conflicting information. This happened to my brother last year and both returns got held up for months while they sorted it out. Make sure whatever you decide, everyone is on the same page about who's claiming what before any returns get filed. Communication is key here!

Did you run the actual numbers for both scenarios? When my husband and I were in school, we initially thought letting my parents claim me would be better, but when we actually calculated everything, filing jointly saved us about $1,800 more than the other option. Filing separately has a lot of hidden downsides - lower standard deduction, can't contribute to a Roth IRA if your income is too low, can't claim childcare credits if you have kids later, etc. Plus the whole process is much more complicated.