[acrissg]

I'm just married! (Thanks for your good wishes y'all!)
I have 2 kids, and as a single mother living with them I claimed for them as well. What do I suppose to do now ? Is my husband another dependent, I'm confused.
He works, same do I, we live check by check and tax refunds are kind of little extra help to count with. What's going to change now? :confused:

[MOWERMAN2468]

Not sure, I know you can claim being married all year , even if you marry on the 31st of Dec. and I think that if you married after the 1st of July, then you will be able to claim the children as being you as the only provider, something about providing for the child for at least six months of the year. Talk to a cpa or your tax preparer.

[KISS]

For federal you have to figure out if married filing jointly or married filing separately is more advantageous. Kids become dependents, not husbands.

Choices are:
Married filing jointly with 2 dependents -or-
Married filing separately
You claim 2, he claims none
He claims 2, you claim 0
You claim 1, he claims 1

There is a "support test" which I believe would be the person that provided more than 1/2 of the kids support gets to claim him/her as a deduction when filing separately.

State taxes may have different rules. I you have to file state taxes you can sometimes file them either way. Federal Joint, State filing combined separate on form.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

First, you are considered married for the entire year!

For 95% of the cases, it makes more sense to file jointly with your husband and claim your children as dependents than to file separately.

David Kempe

[MOWERMAN2468]

not sure, i know you can claim being married all year , even if you marry on the 31st of Dec. and i think that if you married after the 1st of July, then you will be able to claim the children as being you as the only provider, something about providing for the child for at least six months of the year. talk to a cpa or your tax preparer.

Not sure if you referred to me as her and she, but I am all man, "MOWERMAN" perhaps a typo or I am reading it wrong, either way good luck.

[MOWERMAN2468]

I am referring to the rating of my answer in the above posts.

[acrissg]

Thanks for your comments!
I'd need professional help as well, for sure. And that will be my way to keep it simple, rather than stupid! He he

But let me see if I understand: it is my choice; filing jointly or filing separately. There's no mandatory thing about one or other. (I don't get it, anyway).
Plus, if we are considered married for the entire tax year, there must be something really interesting to figure it out here. IRS is not Santa Claus. Either do I. And just to give an extra loop into this mess: after three years of efforts, I got my divorce by publication in May. I got married again in August (WOW I don't loose my time, isn't it?). My husband -the new one- has a kid, he's paying child support and he did last year a plan to pay what he owes in taxes. He'll be done with those payments next March, 2008.
I'm straight up, no debts but no money! I used to file my taxes first week of January, single mom with two kids; that money back went to lawyers. I'd love to see more digits in my bank account statement going back TO ME this time!
Every advice you guys sounds good to me right now. We all have to deal with same all things

[acrissg]

MOWERMAN2468, I apologize I cried laughing about my confusion Promise it's not going to happen again! I confused your nickname in between MOM, WOMEN, WONDERWOMAN... so sorry man (MAN)

[Mobea]

Congrats on your new marriage. Best of luck to you.
Your filing status should be married filed jointly because you were married as of Dec 31st. There are hugh advantages to filing that way. Some of the deductions and credits are very limited if you file Married Filing Separate @ child tax credits, earned income credit, education expenses, itemized deductions. etc. It also may depend on if you live in a community property state. In those states you are responsible for half of the tax liability, regardless. You can go to the IRS web site Internal Revenue Service and look at Pub 501 to see the actual advantages to filing Married Filing Jointly.
One thing that you may consider is that you can file Form 8379, Injured Spouse, so that you may still receive your individual allocated portion of your joint tax refund. If your husband's refund usually goes to back child support, the IRS would take ALL of the total refund that you would receive on a MFJ tax return, unless you file this form. This way, you can take advantage of the tax breaks for Married Filing Jointly AND get your portion of the tax refund back. Hope this helps.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Mobea:

Good post, especially the reference for Injured Spouse.

However, the Child Tax Credits are normally available whether you file jointly or separately.

[Mobea]

Sorry, ATE, I meant the child care tax credit.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Okay, you are forgiven! :-)

[Mathandler1]

Hello,

I am currently taking a course on Income taxaccounting and the textbok that I have for 2007 states that you can file jointly and receive a $10,300 for 2006 or file separately and each receive $5,150 for 2006. Now, what my wife and I have done is claim single and zero on our W-4 forms so that more money is taken out monthly and yet at the end of the year we do a joint return and claim each other, plus head of household, plus our two kids and get a big fat refund. Now, what we did after we first got married is sit down a filled out two different 1040 tax return forms, one as married but filing separately and one as mariired and filing jointly to determine which was the most beneficial in getting back the highest possbile return. And it depends on both your itemized deductions as well. Without looking closely at your situation, I cannot say much more here. You can visit the IRS website at Internal Revenue Service and look thorugh their publications to see what you options are or take a local course on income tax to help you out more. Hope this helps some? Good Luck!

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

MatHandler:

You can file Married Filing Jointly OR Head of Household (if you qualify, which you probably do not), but NOT both.

Further, you do NOT want a fat refund. ANY refund is an interest-free loan to the government. You actually want to PAY come 15 April 2008.