Tax Help If You Intend To Get Married
Posted by Dean Alexander on Mon, Aug 16, 2010
First questions people face when they get married in one year is the filing status. Should we file single, head of household if one of the couple has been filing or even both, married filing jointly or married filing separately? The rule is what is your status at the end of the year? If at December 31 you are married then you can file married filing jointly.
Should people automatically file a joint return? Generally speaking you are better off filing a joint return. There may be other reasons however that may compel them to file differently. The most obvious reason that causes people to file married filing separately (some people erroneously file head of household or single even though they are married) in the existence of an IRS tax problem. One person may owe back taxes. To insulate the partner of the old tax debt they choose to file separately.
What if the couple decided to file jointly? Would they have defenses against the back taxes on the other spouse? There is the injured spouse defense. You basically say that the old tax debt is not yours because it happened before you met your spouse. The injured spouse provides tax relief to help you keep your refund or assets that you may have had before the marriage.
Other household keepings that you may want to remember is notify several authorities of your new status as per IRS Tips:
1. Change your name with SS administration file name change form SS-5. The web is www.socialsecurity.gov @ 800-829-3676
2. IRS address change: file form 8822 @ www.IRS.gov.
3. Notify your employer with the name change.
4. Verify your withholding based on your new combined income and make the withholdings changes with w-4 form