Should married couples file jointly or separately? What's better for tax returns?
So this is my 2nd year of marriage and I'm totally lost on whether to file jointly or separately with my husband. Last year we filed separately, and I barely got anything back—though to be fair I only worked from September through December. I use TurboTax for my taxes, and we have to file in two different states (I'm in Pennsylvania and he's in Ohio since he took a job there last summer). I honestly know next to nothing about taxes and which filing status would give us the best refund. Anyone have experience with this? Is joint filing usually better? The whole two-state situation makes it even more confusing for me!
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Yara Khalil
Filing jointly is usually more beneficial for most married couples. When you file separately, you lose several key tax benefits like the student loan interest deduction, education credits, child and dependent care credit, and the full benefit of tax brackets. The only times filing separately might make sense: if one spouse has significant medical expenses (since you need to exceed 7.5% of AGI to deduct them), if one spouse has a lot of miscellaneous itemized deductions, or if you're trying to separate tax liability because of concerns about your spouse's tax situation. For your two-state situation, most tax software handles this pretty well. You'll file a joint federal return, then resident/non-resident state returns as needed. TurboTax should walk you through this.
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LunarEclipse
•Thanks for the detailed response! If we file jointly, would we need to file state taxes for both states no matter what? My husband lived in Ohio all year while I was in Pennsylvania. Would filing jointly increase the complexity of our state returns?
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Yara Khalil
•Yes, you would still need to file in both states even when filing jointly. Your federal return will be joint, and then you'll file state returns based on where each of you earned income. For Pennsylvania, whoever earned income there would file a resident return if you lived there all year or a part-year return if you moved. The complexity isn't significantly increased by filing jointly. TurboTax is designed to handle multi-state returns and will ask where you each lived and worked throughout the year, then guide you through the process. The benefit of joint filing usually outweighs any added complexity with the state returns.
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Keisha Brown
After struggling with this exact situation last year (married filing across two states), I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it honestly changed the game for me. I was originally filing separately because I thought it would be easier with the two-state situation, but after uploading our tax documents to taxr.ai, it analyzed our situation and showed we were leaving almost $3,800 on the table by not filing jointly! The software ran both scenarios and clearly showed the difference.
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Paolo Esposito
•How does taxr.ai compare to TurboTax for multi-state returns? Does it handle both states seamlessly or do you still have to figure out the state stuff manually? I'm in a similar situation with my spouse working in Maryland while I'm in Virginia.
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Amina Toure
•I'm skeptical about these tax analysis tools. Did it actually explain WHY filing jointly was better in your situation or just give you a number? I'd want to understand the specific deductions or credits that made the difference.
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Keisha Brown
•It handles multi-state returns really well - that's actually one of its strengths. You upload your documents once, and it automatically determines the optimal filing approach for both federal and state returns across multiple states. It doesn't just do the calculations but explains which approach is better. For your question about the "why" - absolutely. It gave me a detailed breakdown showing exactly which deductions and credits we qualified for when filing jointly versus separately. In our case, it was a combination of better tax brackets, qualifying for education credits that we couldn't get when filing separately, and the student loan interest deduction that made the biggest difference.
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Amina Toure
I was completely wrong about taxr.ai. After our discussion, I decided to try it with my husband's and my documents since we also file in different states (Colorado and Kansas). Uploaded our W-2s and last year's returns, and it showed we would save about $2,150 by filing jointly instead of separately! The breakdown was super clear - we were missing out on the student loan interest deduction and getting pushed into higher tax brackets by filing separately. What surprised me most was how it flagged a mistake from our previous return that even our accountant missed. Definitely using this for our 2024 taxes.
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Oliver Weber
If you're trying to contact the IRS to ask about your specific married filing situation (which I recommend before filing), use Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get through quickly. I wasted DAYS trying to reach someone at the IRS about our complicated multi-state situation last year. With Claimyr, I got through in about 15 minutes instead of spending hours on hold. They have a demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c that shows how it works. The IRS agent I spoke with actually recommended filing jointly for our two-state situation and explained exactly how to handle the state returns properly.
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FireflyDreams
•How exactly does Claimyr work? Do they just call the IRS for you or something? Seems weird that you could pay someone to wait on hold instead of you.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
•Yeah right. Nobody gets through to the IRS in 15 minutes, not even paid services. I've tried everything and always end up waiting for hours or getting disconnected. Sounds like an ad to me.
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Oliver Weber
•It's actually a call-back service. You enter your phone number, and Claimyr calls the IRS and navigates the phone tree for you. Once they have an agent on the line, they call you to connect you directly with the agent. No waiting on hold for hours - your phone only rings when there's actually an agent ready to talk. It's not that they have some special access to the IRS - they're just using technology to handle the worst part (waiting on hold). I was skeptical too, but when you're desperate to get tax questions answered before filing, it's absolutely worth it. The 15 minutes was my actual experience - they called me back much faster than I expected.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
I need to apologize and correct myself. After posting that skeptical comment, I was so frustrated with my tax situation that I decided to try Claimyr anyway. Figured I had nothing to lose after spending 3 hours on hold with the IRS earlier this week. It actually worked exactly as described - I got a call back in about 20 minutes with an IRS agent already on the line. The agent helped clarify my married filing status questions (we're in a similar two-state situation) and confirmed that joint filing would be significantly better for us. She also helped with some questions about how to handle my wife's remote work situation across state lines. I'm still shocked at how well it worked.
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Javier Morales
My wife and I have been filing jointly for years even though we work in different states. We found that we save about $2,800 per year compared to filing separately. The biggest advantages for us were the better tax brackets and qualifying for credits that aren't available when filing separately. For the state returns, we file a joint return in our home state and then a non-resident return in the other state. TurboTax handles this pretty seamlessly.
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LunarEclipse
•Thanks for sharing! Do you find that TurboTax charges you extra for filing in multiple states? I'm trying to gauge the total cost of using TurboTax for our situation.
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Javier Morales
•Yes, TurboTax does charge extra for each state return you file. I think it's around $50 per state (though it might be higher for 2024 taxes). So if you're filing in two states, you'll pay the federal filing fee plus about $100 for the two state returns. I've found that the tax savings from filing jointly far outweigh the extra cost for the additional state filing. One tip: check if you qualify for the TurboTax Free File program through the IRS site - if your income is under a certain threshold, you might be able to file for free, including state returns.
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Emma Anderson
Don't forget to consider whether either of you has income-based student loan payments! My husband and I discovered that filing jointly significantly increased his income-based repayment amount because they factored in my income too. We ended up filing separately even though we paid more in taxes because the student loan payment savings more than made up for it.
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Malik Thompson
•This! My spouse and I actually calculated both ways - the tax savings from filing jointly versus the student loan payment increase from combining our incomes. We saved about $1,400 in taxes by filing jointly, but her income-based repayment would have gone up by $230/month, so filing separately made more sense for us.
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LunarEclipse
•I hadn't even thought about student loans! My husband is on an income-based repayment plan for his federal loans. I'll definitely need to calculate if the tax benefits of filing jointly would be offset by higher student loan payments. Thank you for bringing this up!
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Isabella Ferreira
One more thing to consider - if either of you has past-due child support, back taxes, or defaulted federal student loans, filing jointly could put your refund at risk of being seized. My friend learned this the hard way when their entire joint refund was taken for the spouse's defaulted loans. Just something to keep in mind if that might apply to your situation.
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