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Gaby Deimeke
- If I filed taxes with my husband, we would be in a higher tax bracket, costing us more.
- The rest of our finances are separate, so keeping our taxes separate as well just makes sense.
- In case there's ever a problem with his taxes, I won't be liable.
When my husband and I got married, one of the first decisions we made about the next steps in our lives together had to do with our finances. We decided that until we had kids, we'd file our taxes separately. While it might not sound like a romantic conversation to have, it was something important for us to decide on together early on in our marriage.
As someone who spent years making a lot of personal finance mistakes — I didn't have an emergency fund, retirement account, or even a solid savings account — I've invested quality time in building up the health of my own finances over the years.
While my partner and I do share similar values and strategies around how we approach our money, it was important to me to keep most of our finances separate for the first few years of marriage.
That way, we can slowly start to merge joint accounts, budgets, and work on spending and savings plans together over time. This also meant that I felt more comfortable holding off on filing taxes together and sticking to a "married filing separately" filing status.
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1. We earn the same level of income
After my partner and I got married, we sat down to talk about whether or not we should file our taxes together and realized it didn't make much sense.
The main reason why we felt this way was because we both made around the same amount of income every year. When we used a tax bracket calculator, filing our taxes jointly would have put us in a higher tax bracket, which would have caused us to pay more in taxes than if we were to file separately.
When we reached out to our accountants, they both agreed that it made more sense for us to file separately and that it would save us both a few thousand dollars in owed taxes if we did that.
2. We keep our finances separate
Aside from one joint checking account that we share, which is used to pay for recurring shared costs that we have every month (such as rent, electric bills, and utility bills), the rest of our money is entirely separate. We do not share a credit card, savings account, or any investment funds. We also keep our own separate budgets and don't account for one another's spending or saving on a monthly basis.
Our individual incomes mostly support our individual spending and savings goals, other than the portion we use for our shared living expenses. Because everything is separate for now, it made me feel more comfortable to keep our tax returns and refunds separately as well. While this doesn't come with any financial perks, it allows me to mentally feel as though I'm keeping my finances separate from my partner, which I prefer.
3. I don't want to be responsible for his tax liabilities
Filing our taxes separately also removes me from any liability that could come from errors attached to my spouse's tax bill. While I fully trust my partner, I have seen family members who filed taxes with their spouse end up responsible for paying the IRS back taxes on a return that was filled with inaccuracies, even though they didn't know or weren't responsible for those errors.
Filing separately gives me peace of mind that my assets won't be seized in the event that my partner lied or cheated on a joint tax return. I trust my partner, but that could cost me thousands of dollars.