{"id":44755,"date":"2019-03-18T14:14:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/?p=44755"},"modified":"2019-03-18T14:20:52","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T19:20:52","slug":"real-questions-from-our-reddit-ask-me-anything-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/lifestyle\/tax-tips\/real-questions-from-our-reddit-ask-me-anything-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Questions from our Reddit Ask Me Anything \u2013 Married Filing Jointly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor\u2019s Note: In mid-January, we hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Andy, a director in The Tax Institute at H&amp;R Block. Reddit is a community-based website with over a million topic forums and AMAs are places for people to ask anything to an expert on a topic. Andy answered some of the Internet\u2019s most burning tax questions, ranging from tax reform to student loans, marriage, freelance work, and more. This is the second post in a four-part series. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/lifestyle\/tax-tips\/real-questions-from-our-reddit-ask-me-anything-freelance-income\/\">Read the first post here<\/a><em>. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Were you recently married, or your significant other happens to work in multiple states? Check out a few of his answers about marriage and filing jointly below.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Filing Jointly<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q:\u00a0 Recent newlywed here. How should I decide whether to file jointly moving forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A:\u00a0 Congrats! It depends upon the individual situation and whether either spouse has any outstanding debts, but most married couples get a monetary break for filing jointly. You should chat with your spouse to decide what\u2019s best for the both of you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q:\u00a0 My husband got his green card in November. I read somewhere you could not file jointly if your spouse was not a permanent resident. Can we still file jointly if he only had his green card for two months out of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A:\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of misinformation out there. You can file jointly if you\u2019d like. Just make an election to treat your spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes. If you do that, you can file jointly no matter how long your spouse has had their green card.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Deductions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q:\u00a0 I&#8217;m in the tax bracket above $75,000 and below $100,000, I will be married filing jointly, should I take the standard deduction or itemize? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: If you\u2019re using the married filing jointly status, your standard deduction will be $24,000. You need to add up all your itemized deductions (mortgage interest, charitable donations, state taxes up to $10,000, etc.) to determine if they\u2019ll exceed $24,000. If not, you\u2019ll be better with the standard deduction. But remember, you\u2019re not allowed to deduct PMI this year unless Congress passes something to allow that deduction again.<\/p>\n<p><b>Q:\u00a0 I had a lot of unexpected medical expenses last year. One way I stayed positive was thinking &#8220;at least I&#8217;ll have a lot to deduct next year.\u201d I started looking at how it works, can I only deduct total medical expenses minus 7.5% of my AGI? Are there any advantages of filing jointly or separately?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A: Sounds like it was a tough year, love that you\u2019re staying positive. Here\u2019s a breakdown of how medical expense deductions work. Medical expenses are subject to the 7.5% floor, meaning that for you to get a tax benefit, the medical expenses over the 7.5% floor plus all your other itemized deductions (like charitable donations and mortgage interest) must exceed the standard deduction. If you\u2019re filing your return as single, the standard deduction will be $12,000. Hang in there.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Remote Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q:\u00a0 Hey there! My significant works at a company in Missouri but works remotely at least 3\/4 of the year. We live in Indiana. Last year we did our taxes and basically paid for that income twice, once for each state. Is there a way to avoid this? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A:\u00a0 Yes, there definitely is a way to avoid that. If Indiana is your home state (state of residence in tax nerd language), you can claim a credit on your Indiana state return for at least some of the taxes you paid to Missouri on the income that\u2019s reported on both returns. This helps eliminate the double taxation you\u2019re currently experiencing. You may want to amend last year\u2019s return too, do that as well.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Whose Tax Is It Anyway<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q: My fianc\u00e9 owes a significant amount of back taxes. Once we&#8217;re married, will his back taxes become our\/my back taxes?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: Your fianc\u00e9 will be yours to have and hold for better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness, and in-health, but you won\u2019t be holding the bag on their back taxes. Your fianc\u00e9\u2019s tax liability for 2018 and any years prior will belong only to them, even after you\u2019re married. You\u2019re marrying the person, not the back taxes they owe. However, any back taxes you guys accrue after you\u2019re married will stay in the family forever with both of you together. If you\u2019re able to file as an injured spouse, you\u2019d still get your share of the refund even if your partner\u2019s is offset.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q:\u00a0 I made $1,185 last year and payroll taxes were taken out. Do I even need to file?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: As long as you\u2019re not using the married filing separate filing status, you\u2019re not required to file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s Note: In mid-January, we hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Andy, a director in The Tax Institute at H&amp;R Block. Reddit is a community-based website with over a million topic forums and AMAs are places for people to ask anything to an expert on a topic. Andy answered some of the Internet\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4784],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tax-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>Real Questions from our Reddit Ask Me Anything \u2013 Married Filing Jointly | H&amp;R Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/lifestyle\/tax-tips\/real-questions-from-our-reddit-ask-me-anything-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Questions from our Reddit Ask Me Anything \u2013 Married Filing Jointly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Editor\u2019s Note: In mid-January, we hosted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Andy, a director in The Tax Institute at H&amp;R Block. 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