Have you received a tax break since you've been married?
This year will be our 2nd year filing joint... and we've YET to experience the age-old phrase "get married, get a tax break!"... we end up having to pay more taxes together than we would if we filed individually.
We know that it's because we are in the same salary range and don't have many deductions, but it makes me think who came up with that ridiculous phrase? Because it's not true for the majority of married people I know!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
It's not true for us either! I actually dragged his return down because of something or other. I told him we should just keep filing separately. 
All though, now that I think about it, I don't think he ever changed his W2 to state he was married.
Eh, who knows. He does the taxes, I just give him all the donation receipts.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Hurmm. Not sure! We have someone do our taxes. We're getting one this year for sure since we have a baby and I've been staying at home!
hostess / watermelon / 14932 posts
Eek, I'm nervous! This is our first year. However, I'm a student and unemployed, so I'm hoping that if anything that'll benefit him.
eggplant / 11824 posts
I think it works if you have one partner who stops working after marriage, or who makes significantly less than the other.
We’re both higher earners, so basically, we’re screwed.
honeydew / 7968 posts
when we were making similar amounts, we always got more money back when we filed jointly. now that he makes a lot more money, we'll have to revisit that.
apricot / 348 posts
We've never gotten the "marriage break." This year we'll get the mortgage deduction because we bought a house, but we were pretty much screwed when we had an apartment. No house + no kids = screwed on taxes!
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
@tequiero21: wow, really? we were told that we were in the camp of having to pay more taxes because we were in the same salary range. like @yoursilverlining, we were told that the 'marriage tax break' applies to those who have a significant gap in salary ...
grapefruit / 4187 posts
We didn't get a break when we filed our returns, but once I changed my marital status online with my company my paychecks increased by about $200!
honeydew / 7968 posts
@mrsjyw: i think once you guys are in the "higher" tax brackets and you guys earn the same, a lot of the benefits get "phased" out. which is REALLY annoying because they consider $150,000 "higher" income. that's like middle class now! they really need to revisit all these phasing out of benefits.
GOLD / squash / 13464 posts
@tequiero21: Unfortunately that's not really true. I think in a lot of circles $150K would be middle class but the national median household income is actually right around $50K so $150K is quite high (3X the median household)
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
No break received. But that's not why we got married so it's ok.
coconut / 8234 posts
No breaks here! We actually owed money the first time we jointly filed 
(I've never owed money!)
What also made it worse for us was that we used to get more money because we were both getting graduate degrees and that was out.
I can't wait until we file next year! Baby tax break!
honeydew / 7968 posts
@MamaMoose: i think the "median" salary is greatly exaggerated because of the millions of people who feed off the welfare system.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
@tequiero21: Yep, that's exactly where we fall... no tax breaks for us
GOLD / squash / 13464 posts
@tequiero21: I can't argue with you there. But unfortunately since there are so many of them those of us who consider ourselves to be mid range earnings are actually really high earners compared to the masses. Not fun.
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
Yeah, we got a tax break. I do make more than he does.
clementine / 958 posts
Actually, the saying is "marriage penalty," at least among us CPAs The majority of Americans pay higher taxes when married than when single. That's why a lot of elderly people who find a second love later in life after their first spouse passes away choose to live together rather than marry.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
We got a tax break last year. It was the first year we filed jointly, the first time we filed after getting married, and the first year that I didn't have any income. This year I still don't have any income but we are getting about half of what we did last year.
honeydew / 7667 posts
I've never heard that you get a tax break. I've always heard it refered to as a "marriage penalty"
cantaloupe / 6669 posts
We are definitely paying the marriage penalty. We owed last year and we owe again this year.
clementine / 994 posts
We had a fairly good tax break while hubs was self employed, but once he got a regular job, it switched over to a marriage penalty.
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