[Sissy07]

I am engaged to the long time love of my life and we are facing a hurdle.. or at least I am.
He lives in Mississippi and I live in Texas.

Due to previous business obligations we will remain living in separate states and in separate residences (our own respectively) for likely 2-3 years.

Because of family ties he does not wish to live in Texas but remain in Mississippi (younger children from previous marriage) this is OK with me as I am originally from the South and have always wished to return.

Say we marry in July 2007... how do I deal with filing income taxes next year ?
I am in a unique situation and have income BUT very little is taxable (less than $10K a year) so I do not even file federal income taxes and Texas has NO state income tax.

Will I be incurring a tax burden with this marriage?

HELP:confused:

[Steiner99]

Your personal state taxes will not be affected if you do not earn any money in MS. If you are going to file jointly, it's a little more paperwork when he does his MS state taxes to show that your portion of the income is not taxable in MS but not very hard to do.

If you were to get married in 2007, you can file your 2007 federal taxes however you wish: single, married filing jointly, or married filing separately. You will usually have to file your state taxes the same way.

With your income being so low, it would just be easier to get a few 1040's and do the calculations for each filing scenario to see what is more beneficial to you on the federal side. You could use both of your 2006 taxes as a baseline and add your incomes together to see if you would save money by filing jointly.

Your withholding rate is going to be the main factor. If neither of you change your withholding rate once your married (you don't have to), then file jointly then you'll probably get a break at the end of the year. You'd have to know whether your small income would push your combined incomes into another tax bracket. If both of you start withholding as married, you'll pay less tax in out of every paycheck but your refund (if any) will be smaller. It's basically a question of do you want the govt to hold onto your money for you throughout the year and give more back or do you want to hold onto more of it and get less back.

[Fr_Chuck]

I am missing something, sorry not a tax answer, but why in the world are you getting married, if you are not going to live together for 2 to 3 years, because of Business? Sorry but what job, who business is worth more than being with the person you love.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

No comment on Fr Chuck's post, though he raises valid points.

Steiner99 has good advice with one minor error. If you marry in July 2007, you can file married filing jointly or married filing separately. Filing SINGLE is NOT an option.

He may have been referring to the option of "being considered unmarried" if you live separately from your spouse. That option is available to you ONLY IF you would otherwise qualify as Head of Household, which I do not believe applies in your case.