My wife and I got married in 2018. She changed her filing status to married, but I forgot to switch mine from single. Should we file together or separately?

dickinsonalex · ‎June 3, 2019

DoninGA · ‎June 3, 2019

What you enter on your W-4 that you give to your employer to have taxes withheld has no bearing whatsoever on the filing status you enter on your tax return. Since you are legally married you can only file as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. You would want to file as MFJ since it is more advantageous from a tax standpoint then filing as MFS. You receive the highest standard deduction of $24,000 if under age 65.

View solution in original post

DoninGA · ‎June 3, 2019

What you enter on your W-4 that you give to your employer to have taxes withheld has no bearing whatsoever on the filing status you enter on your tax return. Since you are legally married you can only file as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. You would want to file as MFJ since it is more advantageous from a tax standpoint then filing as MFS. You receive the highest standard deduction of $24,000 if under age 65.

Expert does your taxes

Do it yourself

Resources

Support

My wife and I got married in 2018. She changed her filing status to married, but I forgot to switch mine from single. Should we file together or separately?