Comments on: When Does Married Filing Separately Make Sense?

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:25:35 +0000

Crystal,

I am in the same situation. I have done our taxes online trying every scenario possible to see what would benefit us. I too owe about 51,000 in student loans and am trying to get my student loan payment reduced using IBR. I believe filing MFS is the best option for us at this time.

By: Doc

Doc — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:28:01 +0000

If my wife and I file separately and I do a itemized deduction does she have to do the same or can she do a standard deduction.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:19:40 +0000

We are filing married filing separately this year because my husband has $60,000 in student loans and we are going to file for income based repayment. We each made about $25K in 2011 so if we filed jointly our adjusted gross is about $49,000 which means our student loan payments would be adjusted to about $200 (down from the $387 he already pays). But, if we do married filing separately, the refund is obviously going to be less from the IRS but when we do the IBR filing for the student loans, our payment will be $0 based on my husband making less than $35K last year. This nets us an extra $200 per month or $2,400 over the next 12 months. So we might lose some money on the refund now but the IBR of $0 over the next 12 months more than makes up for it in the long run. This is definitely a scenario where married filing separately makes sense. Anyone trying to do IBR should try married filing separately to see if it would benefit them.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:33:47 +0000

I’ve been in your shoes for a few years now. My husband owes back child support. They take our refunds every year. Once you file, you will want to send in an “Injured Spouse Claim Form”. This form will force them to look at your taxes and seperate your refund from your spouses. Your spouse’s refund goes to support and yours goes in your pocket.

By: asdf

asdf — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:32:08 +0000

You would be paying that torwards the loans and interest on the loans instead of just giving to the government.

By: john b

john b — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:45:12 +0000

I do not know the laws in California but I dealt with this same issue I do New Jersey. My ex took me back to court after I remarried because she was told she would receive an increase in child support because of my wifes income. Once I was served with the paper work from the court I did my research and also hired attorney and found she was completely wrong the courts only looked the legal parents income when calculating child support and being I made less and she made more from when the child support order was issued her greed cost her lawyers fees and $45 dollars a week. Also with the women whos husbands are behind on child support I don’t know there specific stories or why they are delinquent but come step up and pay for your kids I am buy no means wealthy and I carry around a 1500 surplus in my child support account

By: Married Filing Separately NY

Married Filing Separately NY — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:22:41 +0000

Despite what the “experts” claim all over the internet, there actually IS a valid, financial benefit to Married Filing Separately in New York State – at least through the 2011 tax year. If a couple makes over $300k combined, they will be subject to the recapture rule, which effectively eliminates the lower rate applied to the amount < $300k. The rate on ALL of the income will be 7.85%. HOWEVER, if the couple each make less than $300k, then the effective rate will be in the 6.5% range, depending on the income. For example, John and Jane Smith have taxable income of $175k each (350k combined). They would pay $27,475 in NYS tax filing jointly. Filing separately, they would pay about $23,800. Depending on circumstances, Federal tax may be adversely affected, but in a relatively simple scenario, the Smith's would realize a net overall benefit of $3400 by filing separately. Mathematically, it's quite simple, for those with combined income over $300, but separately less than $300 each, the net overall benefit is about 1%.

By: Jennier

Jennier — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:34:49 +0000

Lucky for me I’m marrying a guy who does not owe back child support. My question to all of you is, once we’re married can I avoid having my income included in the father’s net worth when child support is calculated. I live in California so I’m sure laws are unique to the state. I’ve heard two conflicting stories. one, we can file our taxes Married but separate and my income will not be included in the father’s net worth. Two, the only way to avoid this is to not get married. Any one know the correct answer. Please help.

By: Marcy

Marcy — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:41:32 +0000

Im going through a divorce. What are the benefits, if any of filing seperate? My(ex)husband and I make almost the same amount of money, but our 3 children reside with me.

By: MeMyselfandI

MeMyselfandI — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:26:53 +0000

@Married with stepchildren: Wrong wrong wrong.. Why should the ex’s new wife be responsible for “financing” the existing children when the paternal mother gets to claim the children and not have child support shown as income? Child support is over inflated as it is. And even if she were getting child support, the system is designed for the father to pay those taxes on income that is redistributed to the ex both paycheck and at tax-time. They are not her children to support even if her dead-beat husband doesn’t pay for them and she shouldn’t be financially responsible because she is considered “an extra curricular activity” according to any judge. The primary family comes first and above all, you should know that as do I. The part about “your” ex having a disability is considered through the Fed and apparently you have child support building up in a state in which he filed under and just don’t know about it. You cannot file a disability and get a full credit when your in the support system and if so, he wouldn’t be getting as much so that money he isn’t getting is definitely somewhere, building up with interest paid by his benefit deduction. If you disagree than every dead beat dad would be doing this if that were the case!

By: Married with Stepchildren

Married with Stepchildren — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:09:57 +0000

I hear both of you with the husband and child support. I was a single mother for 8 years raising my three children, my ex never paid a dime in child support for 6 of those years. My now husband and I were married almost two years ago, finding out about back child support should have been discussed when you were planning the wedding. My husband went into this marriage knowing I do not receive a dime from my ex and that there is nothing we can do about it thanks to shady doctors who continue to give my ex temporary disability papers for a year at a time which exempts him from paying child support. I am very proud of my husband and the fact that he pays his child support, however if he owed back support then I would want to help him catch that up so that his children were taken care of and that bill would be off our heads. The comment that you don’t want your money going to “the other woman” is such a bad way to think about it, he is paying to support HIS CHILDREN, shouldn’t his children have the same oppertunities that yours do? Shouldn’t they get the same support from him as your children get from him? Fair is fair. I am sorry if you don’t like this post but these are innocent children that are suffering and what is right for your child/ren should be expected to be right for his.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:35:31 +0000

I have the same issue, new husband owing back support and not wanting my refund touched. Do I file separately?

By: julie

julie — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:24:09 +0000

I am in a situation, where I do not know what to do. My husband owes a lot of back child support.(prior to our marriage) I worked all year and finacially supported my five children. I know I can do injured spouse, but I am not sure if I want the IRS to decide what happens to my refund. I will very upset if my refund goes to the other women. I have thought about filing separately, I know I can’t claim earned income, but that way I don’t have to let the IRS decide. Any thoughts???

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:31:27 +0000

One reason that was also not mentioned and that most people aren’t aware of is if one spouse has a significant amount of student loan debt and qualifies for Income Based Repayment (IBR) and the other spouse makes a significant amount of money.

In my case my soon to be wife will be graduating with over 200,000 in student loans. With IBR she will only have to pay ~160 per month. If we file jointly the payment will be 1,500 a month since my income will be taken into consideration! IBR does not require my income to be taken into consideration if we file separatly, which is very nice and easily offsets the tax penalty I’ll be paying

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:43:20 +0000

You left out a third scenario. When one spouse is a student and the other spouse does not wish to shoulder the burden of paying for their education. Filing separately allows the student spouse to receive grants/scholarships/student loans to pay for their education without placing the non-student spouse under a financial obligation.