When should I file my taxes: Before or After my upcoming Marriage?

Since your marriage is happening on March 30th this year, your marital status on December 31st of the previous year is what determines your filing status for this filing season. So you're correct - you'll both file as "single" (or "head of household" if either of you qualify) for your 2024 tax returns. There's really no tax benefit to waiting until after your wedding to file. In fact, if you're expecting refunds, filing sooner means getting your money back sooner! The IRS doesn't care about your future marital status for this year's filing. Plus, filing separately now might be simpler than trying to coordinate joint finances right after your wedding when you'll be busy with other things. For next year when you do file as married, typically filing jointly is more beneficial for most couples. With your income levels ($72,000 and $58,000), you'll probably benefit from filing jointly as the tax brackets for "married filing jointly" are more favorable than "married filing separately" in your income range. But there are exceptions - like if one of you has significant medical expenses, student loan payments, or other specific deductions.

After spending hours trying to figure out our complicated tax situation when we got married mid-year, I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped us understand exactly how to file. Even though your situation is pretty straightforward this year (file as single), it'll be super helpful next year when you're deciding between filing jointly or separately as a married couple. The tool analyzes your specific financial situation and helps identify which tax breaks you qualify for as a newly married couple. You just upload your documents and it does all the work explaining your options in plain English. Saved me from having to pay an accountant just to answer basic questions.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai that the other commenter recommended. Honestly I was super skeptical (as you could probably tell from my comment), but it actually helped clarify our situation with student loan interest deductions and whether we should file jointly or separately after our wedding this summer. The document analysis feature was what surprised me the most - it caught a mistake in my W-2 that I would have completely missed. Definitely going to use it again next year when we file as married for the first time. Saved us from making a pretty expensive mistake!

For anyone dealing with tax questions that need direct IRS answers - I was stuck in the same boat last year after getting married and needed to talk to someone at the IRS about some specific marriage tax credits. After spending DAYS trying to get through on the phone, I finally used https://claimyr.com and got connected to an IRS agent in less than 20 minutes! You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Seriously, their system holds your place in line with the IRS and calls you when an agent is actually available. Saved me hours of listening to that awful hold music and getting disconnected. The IRS agent was able to confirm exactly how our new marriage would affect our tax situation.

I need to apologize for being such a doubter. I actually broke down and tried the Claimyr service because I was DESPERATE to talk to the IRS about a marriage tax credit issue similar to the original poster's situation. I'm still shocked, but it actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 35 minutes (way better than the 3+ hours I spent on hold last week). The IRS agent I spoke with cleared up all my questions about filing status before and after marriage. Literally saved me a full day of frustration. Sometimes my skepticism gets the better of me!

For what it's worth, my husband and I just went through this exact situation last year. We got married in February but had already done our taxes in January (filed as single). It worked out fine, but we had one small issue - we both got refunds sent to our individual accounts, which was a little awkward since we had just combined finances after the wedding. If you're planning to merge finances after marriage, maybe consider where you want your refunds to go! You can have them direct deposited to any account you choose, so you could send them to a joint account if you already have one set up, even if you're filing as single.

Just a heads up - one advantage to filing before your wedding is that it's one less thing to worry about when you're dealing with all the post-wedding chaos. My wife and I got married last April and we regretted not filing beforehand because we were so busy with thank you notes, changing names, merging accounts, etc. Also, start gathering documentation now for next year's taxes when you'll file jointly! It's way more complicated combining two people's tax situations. Especially keep track of any wedding-related expenses that might be deductible (rare, but some business-related wedding expenses can be).