My income is $155k. Fiancé is currently in medical school and has 0 income (taking federal loans to pay for tuition). Will use standard deductions and don't believe my Fiancé qualifies for any tax credits that would otherwise go away when filing jointly. I pay for all of our living and day to day expenses…however I can't currently claim her as a dependent when single because the medical school loans count towards "financial support" even though they aren't taxable income.
Given all this…can someone check me on this or add in anything else to the equation I might not be considering here? On the surface it's a pretty substantial difference (in addition to being able to save $5k on her medical insurance by putting her on my company plan…ironic she's the one in medicine)
Me Filing Single: $26,267 owed
Fiancé "filing" Single: $0 owed
Married Filing Jointly: $16,998 owed
Getting married in 2026, how much would I save in taxes if we were to be legally married in 2025 and file jointly?
byu/rbrook11 intax
Posted by rbrook11
4 Comments
Plus, unless you already took it into account you’re likely eligible for a $500 Other Dependent credit. And you may be eligible for up to $2000 In Lifetime Learning credit.
Edit: You may get an additional advantage on your state taxes.
Signed: The Matchmaker
you should get the MFJ standard deduction, which is much better than single. If you aren’t itemizing, it should be straightforward. Use one of the free sites and ‘file’ for last year, just dont’ actually submit it. Run it both ways. Have the wedding next year, sign the papers this year. That’s $9k in your pocket…invest that wisely for retirement and you will look back and thank yourselves.
Yeah, I would expect it to be a substantial difference just from the difference in the standard deduction & tax brackets; that looks about right.
Remember that you can claim the lifetime learning credit for her tuition, too; that’s another $2000 saved if she’s paying at least $10k in tuition. You’re close to that beginning to phase out ($160k MFJ), but as long as you’re under $180k for the year, you’ll get something.
It’s worth double-checking on any financial aid she’s receiving to make sure it won’t be affected by including your income. Once she graduates, you’ll need to consider the tax savings of filing jointly vs the lower loan payments from filing separately (which mostly matters if she’s going to be eligible for PLSF down the road; otherwise, file MFJ for the tax savings and apply those savings to her loan payments to pay them off sooner), but ofc you aren’t there yet.
That’s sound logic, I didn’t check your math but you are basically just running your income through the MFJ tables instead of the Single table, and you get the larger standard deduction. Good thinking about the medical insurance as well.
Only thought is to make sure none of her income is taxable, when my wife was in school for her PhD she had like 30k of a stipend for living expenses that was taxable and she got a W-2.
You don’t even have to tell your friends and family if you don’t want to spoil any plans or anything for the wedding, just go to City Hall and file some paperwork.