married filing jointly

michele31 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:40 PM

married filing jointly

We are in the middle of preparing our 2002 taxes and I am curious- have many of you been hit with the 'marriage penalty'. Have you found that your tax refund was much less than if you filed as a single person?

NIHA Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:43 PM

Re: married filing jointly

We haven't filed yet, but I'm sure it will be less. I've never owed $$, and I wouldn't be suprised if we owe this year. Our combined income is a lot for not owning property or having dependents. I guess next year will be different since we'll own a place and have a child and I'll only be working half this year.

teresa518 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:46 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Yes!!!!!!! We are the perfect culprit of the Marriage Penalty since we both work and make similar salaries. It kills us. On top of that, my new company didn't take out NYC taxes (I live in Queens) this year so we're definately going to pay a lot.

ChristineC68 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:47 PM

Re: married filing jointly

We got ours done last night, it was lower. But I dont know by how much, I don't even want to know how much we could have gotten back. The tax preparer told us to go buy a house about 20 times.

And n/a to everyone but we get a significantly bigger refund filing jointly compared to seperately. I thought it would have been close to even.

Sonicstef Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:53 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Yes! (We knew this all along though so its no surprise) Marriage penalty stinks!

michele31 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 03:54 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I just think it totally $uck$ that the gov't preaches 'Family Values' (whatever that really means) and then kills married couples financially. How can they say 'marriage is important' in one breath and then 'living together is better financially' in another. I am keeping my fingers together that we do okay on our taxes.

Sonicstef Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:00 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Michele - you should be okay since the mortgage should help you out a lot. I would think the two would balance each other out.

In any event - the US tax structure is DESIGNED to punish the middle class. If your completely poor - then you dont have to pay much and if you are very rich you can avoid them by utilizing tax attorney loopholes, etc. Its the middle class who pays for everyone.

If we instituted a flat tax - there could be no loopholes and the burden could be shared. But that is never going to happen so I wont hold my breath.

PS: I believe the marriage penalty is being phased OUT of the tax structure over the next few years. Not that it matters - the govt takes nearly HALF of what we make no matter how you cut it.

ChristineC68 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:11 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I heard about the marriage penatly phasing out also.

My sister and I were talking about this the a couple months back. She said income tax should be eliminated and have a 25% sales tax on everything. This way EVERYONE is paying the same rate based on what you purchase - upper class, lower class, drug dealers, etc.

shamma Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:14 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I will not say anything on this issue, b/c the IRS might come back and find out about me I hate taxes

michele31 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:15 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I agree about some type of flat tax. The rich will always find ways to keep their money- we all know that.

The mortage helps us out but I wish I could claim Beemer as my dependant

Sonicstef Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:21 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Christine - I am totally for the flat tax but taxing purchases 25% would literally drive our economy into the toilet. You cant penalize people for spending money - that is what keeps the economy going (more spending = more jobs = more spending, etc..). When I say 'flat tax', I mean a standard % on what you EARN. So if I earn 200 million and the flat tax is 20%, then I pay 40 million a year. No deductions, no excuses. That way the rich will pay their share.

Just want to clarify.

ss2002 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:38 PM

Re: married filing jointly

The term 'marriage PENALTY' kills me...

ChristineC68 Posted: Feb 06, 2003 04:47 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Stef, I know what you meant. This was a different spin on making sure everyone pays their fare share.

If it were a sales tax per se, people that make money illegally or have the ability to hide money would pay more taxes.

Also, without income tax withholdings, our take home pay would be higher. I already pay about 35% of my salary/earnings to taxes, plus another 4 - 8.5% on sales tax (depending on item purchased & where). That's a 40- 45% tax rate. I would rather pay a 25% sales tax on all my purchases.

Just something we were throwing around one night over dinner & drinks.

dgtlsunshine Posted: Feb 06, 2003 05:16 PM

Re: married filing jointly

Oh boy have we been hit hard. We don't own a home and we both make pretty good money. My head hurt just thinking of how much we owe.

Also my coworker here said his wife makes way less than him and they still got hit pretty hard before they own a home.

shamma Posted: Feb 06, 2003 05:18 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I feel bad for the person that got married on NYE What a penalty to pay for LOVE

JennRenee Posted: Feb 06, 2003 05:19 PM

Re: married filing jointly

We filed jointly last year, and got back almost to the penny what our combined returns were the previous year. So I guess my answer is no, we did pretty well. We hope to do much better this year because we've been in our home for over a year.

Misty Posted: Feb 06, 2003 05:24 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I have to jump in and ask here...does owning anything help you? Meaning a car....etc??

alina Posted: Feb 06, 2003 05:30 PM

Re: married filing jointly

At what point do you have to file jointly? If you got married in the middle of 2002, do you file jointly or separately? FH and I talked about it last night, and he said either way can work for the year when the status changed. So if you were still single in beginning of 2002, then you can still file separately as of now, even if you're married today. Is this true?

Fran M Posted: Feb 06, 2003 06:18 PM

Re: married filing jointly

I dont even want to think about this yet.

Wendy Posted: Feb 06, 2003 06:32 PM

Re: married filing jointly

To answer Alina, if you got married at anytime during the year 2002, you must file as either Married Filing Jointly, or Married Filing Separately. However, you will almost surely pay more if you file as Married Filing Separately.