Filing single or married question?

[Rushton50 10]

Few questions:

I Have been a lawful perm resident for about 2 years now and in the past my wife and I filed joint tax returns since the first year of moving here. In that time I have set up my own business which is not turning over a great deal at the moment, but I started work over 3 years ago and progressed through the ranks and now make a good living as does my wife.

From what I understand by a co worker, my supervisor, if we file separate returns we could get a better tax return as neither one of us will individually hit the top tax bracket, but would if we filed jointly.

Combined we earned over 60k last year so divide by 2 you get where our average wage sits.

1..Is he right in what he says about filing separate?

2..Is there any disadvantage of doing this?

3. Can we file jointly in a different year should we chose?

And the big question...

I am considering filing my N400 possibly later this year and if we file separate, will this be an issue towards proving evidence of our relationship later on?

Thanks in advance gang!

[AB loves AG 54]

If you're married you cannot file single. You must file either married filing jointly or married filing separately. You usually get better tax breaks when filing jointly.

Edited January 6, 2016 by AB loves AG

[Rushton50 10]

If you're married you cannot file single. You must file either married filing jointly or married filing separately. You usually get better tax breaks when filing jointly.

Thank you for your response, but all due respect I never stated to file as a single person, but I understand where the confusion would come from given how I may have worded my post.

We have had no children, we have not bought a house in the last tax period, but curious as to what tax breaks a married couple breaking 60k would get?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thank you for your response, but all due respect I never stated to file as a single person, but I understand where the confusion would come from given how I may have worded my post.

We have had no children, we have not bought a house in the last tax period, but curious as to what tax breaks a married couple breaking 60k would get?

It is your title that said single and probably confused- Filing single or married question?

The tax assessed is different (on the same taxable income) depending on your filing status. So two $30ks filing Married Filing Separately, might add up to more total tax than tax a $60k filing Married Filing Jointly. At your income, you may only have to pay $5 more by going separate. At higher incomes that are very different, say $90k and $20k, it could cost you $2400 more by going separate over joint.

Scroll through the tax tables and you can work out some estimate examples. These are not not the current year, but may help you see the tax applied at different income levels/different filing status. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf

The only way to know for sure is do your own taxes both ways and see if Separate+Separate is less than Joint. My bet is most often it is not.

[NikLR 13,227]

Thank you for your response, but all due respect I never stated to file as a single person, but I understand where the confusion would come from given how I may have worded my post.

We have had no children, we have not bought a house in the last tax period, but curious as to what tax breaks a married couple breaking 60k would get?

You may want to have a mod change the title of your post.

[newacct 688]

What your coworker says doesn't make sense. The brackets for Married Filing Separately are all exactly half the size of the same bracket for Married Filing Jointly. So if you file separately you will be either in the same bracket (in the case where the two people's incomes are about equal) or the higher earner will be in an even higher bracket (in the case where the two people's incomes are very different). In no case would the brackets for Married Filing Separately be better than Married Filing Jointly.