I know it’s a bit early to be thinking about this but I’m not sure if my husband and I should file jointly for our taxes or not.
We got married in May 2025 so this would be our first time filing married.
For 2024 taxes, my husband had about $38,000 of taxable income (Box 1 on his W2).
I had $135,000 in Box 1 of my W2 from 2024.
My husband got a 3% raise in 2025, I got 5%.
I don’t think we would be over the $206,000 to be bumped into the next tax bracket. But my husband is currently in the 12% and would be bumped to the 22%.
I’ve heard of some people filing separately when there is a big disparity in income, but I’m not sure if that’s the case for us. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated!
Posted by Shadow_Girl1128
8 Comments
Calculate both ways; sometimes the answer is surprising.
The bigger the income difference the better it is to file jointly. All other things being equal.
For example, a married person who makes $200k with a non working spouse pays about half of the taxes filing as MFJ vs MFS.
You will absolutely save in total taxes by filing a joint return.
Calculate it both ways but filing jointly is almost always the better option.
It’s usually most advantageous to file jointly. When the time comes just do it both ways to see which works best.
The language you use suggests that you might be under the mistaken impression that moving into a higher tax bracket means all your income is taxed at the new, higher rate. This is not true.
In fact, all the income below the income threshold will still be taxed the same. Only the income above the threshold would use the higher rate.
Conceptually, the mechanism that allows most joint filers to save on income taxes is that the higher-earning spouse gets to shift their high-tax-bracket income to the lower-earning spouse’s unused low-tax-bracket space. Likely in your case, some of your income gets shifted from 22% to 12%, and another portion from 24% to 22%.
Use tax software (free tax usa is actually free for federal and under $20 for the state, but only if you actually file) to try it both ways. I do it every year. I have a dummy account for just the test files
You have it backwards. Bigger the disparity the better to file joint