Speaking of taxes, married folks.

Jason the Magnificent - 3-15-2007 at 12:40 PM

How do you guys file? Married jointly or seperately?

I'm getting hitched in Apr and the tax thread got me thinking how my filing is going to change.

BDx13 - 3-15-2007 at 12:47 PM

we continued to file seperately for a few years because with my freelance work, it worked out better that way. the first year it DIDN'T, we switched over to filing joint and have done so every year since.

my recollection is that you can keep doing seperate until the first time you do joint, then there's no going back. not sure how accurate that is, though.

the child tax credit was a nice bonus, and i'm anxious to see how owning a house effects things this year.

stateofdisgrace - 3-15-2007 at 12:52 PM

My "girl" and I file separately every year. She claims the kids since she makes under 30G a year. It was more when my step daughter was claimable (now she's 25, not allowed).

Filing separately seems beneficial when you have:

a) kids she can claim
b) property you can claim
c) if your tax status on your pay is single. if you file married all year, it makes no sense to later file for single status....

just my thoughts.....

Voodoobillyman - 3-15-2007 at 12:52 PM

married and jointly, and yes that child tax credit is a big help right after the holidays. the house thing is pretty good too but I think it takes a bit to really become worthwhile. My property tax just went up 50 bux a month which of course jacks up your mortgage payment. watch out for that, I didn't get any warning from the city until I received my annual property assessment about a month later.

stateofdisgrace - 3-15-2007 at 12:54 PM

Voodoo,

I pay the taxes myself, so I don't have any surprises later on. The state/city usually sends you the increase notice directly. When your mortgage co. pays it, the letter goes to them and then surprise! Mortgage went up!

Voodoobillyman - 3-15-2007 at 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stateofdisgrace
Voodoo,

I pay the taxes myself, so I don't have any surprises later on. The state/city usually sends you the increase notice directly. When your mortgage co. pays it, the letter goes to them and then surprise! Mortgage went up!

Thanks for the heads up, I will have to look into taking these payments on myself, the shit just went down way to quick and shady for my tastes.

BDx13 - 3-15-2007 at 12:59 PM

voodoo, you can appeal your assessment. the previous owner of my house did that, and we're currently paying about a thousand dollars less a year than our neighbors.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/31/pf/yourhome/homeguide_proper...

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_05/b3818133....

http://www.ricedelman.com/planning/taxes/propertytax.asp

stateofdisgrace - 3-15-2007 at 01:21 PM

Interesting BD...thanks

CR83 - 3-15-2007 at 02:40 PM

We file together and get fucked on day care and the child credit because of our "bracket". We lost big time this year. A CFO friend does our taxes for us.

The downside is we could make less money and not pay as much in taxes. Upside, we are very fortunate people that we can afford the taxes we pay. The other way we try and feed the Karma Machine is we donate lots of time and money to charities in our community.

DaveMoral - 3-15-2007 at 06:15 PM

We filed together and all... but being an independent contractor I don't have W2s and I don't save for tax time... so I'm a tad bit behind.

moron - 3-15-2007 at 06:18 PM

We filed jointly, and Im not sure if it benefited us or not. We have no kids, don't own a home, blah blah so I dont think we got anything more than the standard deduction anyway.