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Should my spouse and I file jointly or separately?

alexandra100

hello, I was recently married and my partner and I are wondering whether we should be filing jointly or separately. We have no dependents - one of us is a 1099 employee and the other is a W2. Will there be a significant difference in filing jointly or separately?

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Comments

austinb

Married Filing Jointly is usually the favorable status for married couples. Since you have no dependents, the disadvantage of filing separately is decreased, but it is still unlikely that filing separately would be beneficial. Being a W-2 vs 1099 employee does not make a significant difference in what status you should use.

Filing separately may be beneficial in these scenarios:

You or your spouse have student loans with repayment plans based on income.
You or your spouse have large am medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income.
You want to keep tax records separate.

If any of these apply or you would like to be certain that you are choosing the optimal status, I would recommend using our software to prepare both joint and separate returns to see which results in less tax owed or a greater refund.