Married in 2024. I was single, sold my house and bought new house with my husband. He used to file head of household and claimed his kid as part of agreement with ex wife.

[Wafaweb12]

Married in 2024. I was single, sold my house and bought new house with my husband. He used to file head of household and claimed his kid as part of agreement with ex wife. Thinking we’d file married filing. But because he retired in 2024 and started collecting pension as well as started working a new full-time job, his return shows he owes about $5000. I started my return as married, filing separately, and I’m in the plus because I sold my house and claiming the house we bought together since I paid down payment and all  the closing expenses for it. I also have student loans that I pay interest on that I can deduct.

if we file married filing jointly, will we that $5000 that he owes get deducted from our potential refund? I feel like I’d be getting the short end of the stick

[xmasbaby0]

If you were legally married at the end of 2024 your filing choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately.

Married Filing Jointly is usually better, even if one spouse had little or no income. When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $29,200 (+ $1550 for each spouse 65 or older)  for 2024. You are eligible for more credits including education credits, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and a larger income limit to receive the child tax credit. 

If you choose to file married filing separately, both spouses have to file the same way—either you both itemize or you both use standard deduction. Your tax rate will be higher than on a joint return.

 Some of the special rules for filing separately include: you cannot get earned income credit, education credits, adoption credits, or deductions for student loan interest. A higher percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxable. Your limit for SALT (state and local taxes and sales tax) will be only $5000 per spouse. In many cases you will not be able to take the child and dependent care credit. The amount you can contribute to a retirement account will be affected. If you live in a community property state, you will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s income. ( Community property states:  AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI)

 If  you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice since with online, you get one return per fee.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/should-you-and-your-spouse-file-taxes-jointly-or-separ...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/income/getting-married-mean-taxes/L2Rgma...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/married-filing-separately-commu...

[RobertB4444]

Married filing jointly usually results in a better deal.  Married filing separately has all of the same tax rates as being single without all of the deductions.

Your husband owes money because head-of-household is a much better filing status than married-filing-separately.  Joining your two returns together should mean that he owes less and your refund goes down.  You will lose out on some of your refund but probably not $5000.

@Wafaweb12 

[xmasbaby0]

It is not easy to compare MFJ to MFS using online TT but you can do it.  Since you only get one return for each account and user ID, you have to use 3 accounts and user ID’s—one for MFJ and two for each of the MFS returns.  Compare, choose, and file—and pay—accordingly.

It is much easier to do this comparison using the desktop version of TT installed from a CD or downloaded to your own computer.  You pay once for the software and you can prepare multiple returns easily, and it has a “what if” feature that allows comparisons.

WHAT IF…?

If you are using Desktop software:

• With your return open, click Forms in the upper-right-hand corner
• Click Open Form
• In the Search area, type the word what. You should see the What If Worksheet listed, click to open it.

[Wafaweb12]

Thank you!  @RobertB4444 We actually entered him as married, filing separately and he is owing the $5k. But I guess either way, like you said, we would be better off filing jointly. We may come out even. Good for him, not so good for me 😉. 

[Hal_Al]

Everything you describe favors filing as Married Filing Jointly (MFJ).  Your real question seems to be how do you allocate the final tax bill (or refund) between you two.  You'll have to do a separate calculations for that.

As other have suggested, your best way to do a separate returns calculations is with the download versions of TurboTax (TT).  You can prepare an unlimited number of real or practice returns for the one TT fee.  If you haven't filed yet, online, you can still switch to download.

Or you can use this tool to do comparisons for free. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1

I suggest rather than comparing your MFJ return to two Married Filing Separately (MFS) returns, you compare the MFJ results to what it woulda been if you filed Single and he filed as Head of Household (HoH).