Just realized that my filing status on my paycheck (which I admit I rarely look at) is married-one income. Just changed it to S/M-2 incomes (since the wife works outside the home too). Will I be getting more state tax money taken out now? I’ve heard about a marriage tax penalty, is it still around? I would like to stop owing the state at the end of the year.
You can put whatever you want on your filing status, 0, 1, 9. It doesn’t have to be accurately reflect your real status. If you want a tax refund at the end of the year file 0. You’ll probably end up with a huge tax refund but that will be reflected by how much less you take home on each paycheck. It really boils down to do you want to take home say $2500 every 2 weeks and pay the government $1000 at the end of the year or do you want to take home $2300 every 2 weeks and get $4200 back at the end of the year.
There is the concept of a marriage tax penalty but how much you are effected by it varies. Essentially as you go up the progressive tax code the numbers for single vs married don’t double. I.e. if you and your wife both make 80K adjusted gross income under filling single 44K for each of you would be taxed at 25% so 88K*.25 = 22K. If you filed married 74K would be taxed at 25% and the additional 14K would be taxed at 28%. You do have to exceed 146K adjusted gross income to be effected by this issue.
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