I want a Divorce- Taxes!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been married for 2 years and for the second year in a row, I (along with my husband) owe federal and state taxes. I got a decent refund while I was single and so did he. Last year (Ist year of marriage), we filed jointly and ended up owing. It was a highly annoying sticker shock but we paid it and adjusted our W4s to have our employers deduct more money through the year.

Imagine my chagrin yesterday when turbo tax says that we owe AGAIN this year and this year's bill is even higher than last year. That's it!, I want a divorce, this is ridiculous. Neither one of us are high earners and we have a little girl so it's not like we are living high on the hog as it is. But to have to fork out money that we don't have to pay a yearly tax bill is not something I want to deal with yearly.

I (and I suspect my husband) was perfectly fine being unmarried in a relationship. We only got married because of our child, whom, Uncle Sam now says that we can only claim a minimal child credit deduction for because we 'earn too much'. Whaaaaatt?

I am filing for divorce. This is bullshit.

+10000!!! Unless you own a home and/or have multiple children, you're gonna owe. It's ridiculous. But my neighbor with 7 kids working 10 hours a week will get a 10K refund in addition to housing voucher, food stamps, medicaid, etc.

Yep. Welcome to Obama's country. Where you are subsidizing those that make less than you and have more kids. We all just need to get used to the idea that everyone must make around the same salary in this country - being too rich is just bad, bad, bad so you must give some back so it all evens out.

Don't be an ass. The marriage penalty has been around for decades. Literally since widows of men killed in action during WWII complained they were being taxed more by virtue of NOT being married. That's why the code is written the way it is now.

[Anonymous]

I'm not talking about the marriage penalty - I'm talking about the pp who is complaining about owing so much while her neighbor gets all these subsidies and has a ton of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH makes a lot more than me and pulls me up several tax brackets upwards. I feel like I'm being robbed by being married.

Are you sure you are paying more because you are married? Normally if one spouse has an income that is significantly higher than the other spouse's income, the total taxes paid by the couple are lower when they are married then if they were single. It's when both incomes are fairly high and fairly equal that the marriage penalty kicks in. Yes, the marginal rate on what you earn is undoubtedly higher than it was when you were single, but if your husband's income really is significantly higher than yours I would be surprised that if your total taxes as a couple are higher than the taxes you both would pay as single individuals.

Some people benefit from the tax code by being married (one-earner couples and couples where one person's income is much higher than the other person's), it is neutral for some couples (those with two moderate incomes), and it hurts some couples (those with two high incomes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just every year sit down and crunch some numbers with a withholding calculator and decide how much to withhold on my W4 (sometimes it is zero exemptions + extra). You can also look into married filed separately, although there may be some reasons why it works out better to file jointly, depending on your situation. It's not really a big deal---there are other benefits to being married, like, for example, for my non-W2 employee husband to be on my employer health insurance.

Yes, again -- there is actually a form on your W2 that exists for this EXACT REASON. Take a gander at it. There is really no element of "surprise" here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just every year sit down and crunch some numbers with a withholding calculator and decide how much to withhold on my W4 (sometimes it is zero exemptions + extra). You can also look into married filed separately, although there may be some reasons why it works out better to file jointly, depending on your situation. It's not really a big deal---there are other benefits to being married, like, for example, for my non-W2 employee husband to be on my employer health insurance.

Yes, again -- there is actually a form on your W2 that exists for this EXACT REASON. Take a gander at it. There is really no element of "surprise" here.

Isn't the form on your W4 not W2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just every year sit down and crunch some numbers with a withholding calculator and decide how much to withhold on my W4 (sometimes it is zero exemptions + extra). You can also look into married filed separately, although there may be some reasons why it works out better to file jointly, depending on your situation. It's not really a big deal---there are other benefits to being married, like, for example, for my non-W2 employee husband to be on my employer health insurance.

Yes, again -- there is actually a form on your W2 that exists for this EXACT REASON. Take a gander at it. There is really no element of "surprise" here.

Isn't the form on your W4 not W2?

yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you itemize or use the standard deduction?

OP here, we itemize.

Also on our W4- I claim 2 exemptions and DH claims 1. Isn't that what the instructions are on the form? Claim one for yourself, and one for your dependent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you itemize or use the standard deduction?

OP here, we itemize.

Also on our W4- I claim 2 exemptions and DH claims 1. Isn't that what the instructions are on the form? Claim one for yourself, and one for your dependent?

that's too many for a married couple where both earn comparable amounts

[Anonymous]

No there is a worksheet on the second page for this exact purpose; that is, extra withholding.

[Anonymous]

My marriage penalty is in the $10-20k ballpark. I always wondered what are the downsides if we got divorced and declared ourselves domestic partners. The biggest issue seems to be what happens if one of you dies. You have to do all the paperwork correctly to make sure the other inherits your property and gets custody of the kids, and you may not qualify for some SS, pension, and survivor benefits.

[Anonymous]

Rich people who get divorced to save $ on taxes are as bad as the ones who give US citizenship to save $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been married for 2 years and for the second year in a row, I (along with my husband) owe federal and state taxes. I got a decent refund while I was single and so did he. Last year (Ist year of marriage), we filed jointly and ended up owing. It was a highly annoying sticker shock but we paid it and adjusted our W4s to have our employers deduct more money through the year.

Imagine my chagrin yesterday when turbo tax says that we owe AGAIN this year and this year's bill is even higher than last year. That's it!, I want a divorce, this is ridiculous. Neither one of us are high earners and we have a little girl so it's not like we are living high on the hog as it is. But to have to fork out money that we don't have to pay a yearly tax bill is not something I want to deal with yearly.

I (and I suspect my husband) was perfectly fine being unmarried in a relationship. We only got married because of our child, whom, Uncle Sam now says that we can only claim a minimal child credit deduction for because we 'earn too much'. Whaaaaatt?

I am filing for divorce. This is bullshit.

+10000!!! Unless you own a home and/or have multiple children, you're gonna owe. It's ridiculous. But my neighbor with 7 kids working 10 hours a week will get a 10K refund in addition to housing voucher, food stamps, medicaid, etc.

Lies. I don't owe anything and I am single with no kids, and I rent.

[Anonymous]

Getting married doesn't mean you will be in a single household. You shouldn't have to pay different tax amounts based on your marital status.

[Anonymous]

This is one of the reasons I support gay marriage: It's part of my deficit-reduction plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the main reason I've never legally married my partner. We actually had a small destination wedding in another country several years ago and call each other husband and wife, all our friends and family think of us as married, but for all legal purposes we are single -- we each get our own health insurance through work and for taxes I file as head of household and claim our kids, he files as single. We've done the math and being married would cost us about $15K a year in taxes.

This is smart. Wish I had thought of that. I should have had my religious wedding, but not the county issued marriage license. DH makes a lot more than me and pulls me up several tax brackets upwards. I feel like I'm being robbed by being married. We have our own health insurance and such, there was no reason to be married legally.

BF and I have been together 25 yrs. we have 2 kids together. I own the house we live in. Everyone thinks we're married except our oldest friends who have known us since we were in HS. We have decided that we will get married when he reaches 62. It's part of the start of our retirement life together. Hopefully once we start retirement there won't be as much as a marriage penalty to pay.