Thursday, May 13, 2010

Tax refund question: Is it true you can get more money back by filing married but separated?

I have some friend that insists you can get more back by filing, ';married but separated'; instead of filing together. Does anyone know about this?Tax refund question: Is it true you can get more money back by filing married but separated?
Generally you only file separate if there are tax problems with one spouse. Separate is a higher tax rate. It is usually better to file joint.Tax refund question: Is it true you can get more money back by filing married but separated?
This could indeed be the case if you are legally separated.





Both of you would get the single person's allowance avoiding the marriage penalty.





If one of you earns a great deal more than the other then an alimony payment could be made to transfer income. This would tax deductible to the giver at a higher rate and taxable at a lower rate of tax to the receiver.





Edit: you wrote 'separated', I presume this is what you meant. The other posters presume you meant to write 'separate'. Totally different animal. Take care!
Generally, most people are better off filing a Joint return. There are a few instances where filing a Separate return is better but it is pretty rare.





Remember, when getting tax advice from friends, those friends are usually wrong about 90% of the time.
No. Exactly the opposite is true.

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