Should my husband claim me as a dependent on his taxes or should we file jointly?

You cannot be claimed as a dependent by your spouse if you're married filing jointly - those are mutually exclusive filing statuses. As a married couple, you have two options: file jointly or file separately. For most couples, filing jointly provides better tax benefits. With your situation (one higher earner and one lower earner/student), filing jointly will almost certainly be more advantageous. When you file jointly, you'll get a higher standard deduction ($27,700 for 2024 married filing jointly vs $13,850 for married filing separately), and you'll likely qualify for more credits and deductions, especially education-related ones since you're a student. The fact that you earned some income actually works in your favor when filing jointly, as it can help qualify you for credits that require earned income.

I was in a similar situation last year and found https://taxr.ai super helpful! My husband and I got married mid-year and I was also a student making way less than him. We weren't sure if we should file jointly or separately because of his student loans. I uploaded our W-2s and last year's returns to taxr.ai and it analyzed everything and recommended filing jointly, showing us exactly how much more we'd save (about $2,200 in our case). The tool also explained which education credits we qualified for that we wouldn't have gotten filing separately.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai from the recommendation above. It was really helpful for our situation! My spouse and I were also debating filing jointly vs separately because of income differences. The analysis showed we'd save about $1,850 filing jointly despite my concerns about my student loans. What I found most useful was that it actually showed how different education credits worked with our specific income situation. We qualified for education credits we would have completely missed if we filed separately. It also found some deductions related to my spouse's work-from-home expenses that we hadn't considered. Definitely filing jointly now and feeling much more confident about our decision!

If you're still struggling to get clear information directly from the IRS on this (their phone lines are impossible!), I'd recommend https://claimyr.com to get through to an actual IRS agent. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was in the exact same situation last year - married in July, student with minimal income, husband with regular job. I had questions about education credits that weren't clearly addressed on the IRS website. After trying for days to reach someone at the IRS and just getting busy signals, I tried Claimyr and got connected to an agent in about 20 minutes who confirmed we should file jointly and helped identify which education credits we qualified for.

I need to apologize for my skeptical comment above. I actually broke down and tried Claimyr yesterday after getting disconnected from the IRS for the fourth time this week. Got a callback in about 40 minutes (not 20, but still WAY better than my previous attempts). The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed that married couples cannot claim each other as dependents and helped me understand which education credits my wife qualified for as a part-time student. The agent also found an issue with how my wife's scholarships were being reported that would have caused problems if we hadn't fixed it. Honestly surprised this service actually worked. Saved me from taking a half day off work just to sit on hold.

Filing jointly is almost always better when one spouse earns significantly more than the other. My wife was in school last year while I worked full-time, and we saved about $3,200 by filing jointly compared to separately. The marriage "bonus" happens when there's an income disparity because it essentially averages your tax rates. Plus you get access to credits that married filing separately doesn't qualify for. Remember that even if you file jointly, you can still claim education expenses for either spouse with credits like the American Opportunity Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit, which you might lose if filing separately.

Has anyone used the IRS's Interactive Tax Assistant for this question? It literally has a tool specifically for determining if you should file jointly or separately. Saved me tons of research time!

Just to clarify a key point that might be confusing from your question - married couples cannot claim each other as dependents, period. That's not an option available to you. Your only choices are filing jointly or filing separately. Given your situation (you made $7,800 as a student, husband made $65,000), filing jointly will almost certainly be better. Here's why: 1. **Higher standard deduction**: $27,700 for married filing jointly vs. $13,850 each if filing separately 2. **Education credits**: As a student, you'll likely qualify for the American Opportunity Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit, which are more beneficial (or only available) when filing jointly 3. **Income averaging effect**: Your low income will help bring down your combined tax rate The only scenario where filing separately might make sense is if one of you has significant student loans on an income-driven repayment plan, since those payments are based on income. But even then, you'd need to calculate whether the loan payment savings outweigh the tax benefits lost. I'd strongly recommend running the numbers both ways before deciding, but for most couples in your situation, joint filing saves significantly more money.