Good Morning Dinks. It’s that time of year again, the time of year when we gather all of our personal income information from the previous year, wait patiently for all of our tax slips to arrive in the mail and make an appointment to see our accountant. That’s right…it’s tax time Dinks.
Some people chose to file joint taxes and some people choose to keep their personal income tax filing to themselves. My boyfriend Nick and I always file joint income taxes and we have for years. We earn approximately the same income (give or take a few thousand) and we both have some freelance income on the side, so it only makes sense to file joint taxes and split our yearly income tax refund evenly.
Our couple’s tax tradition is that we use our income tax refund to buy one item for our apartment and then we split the rest of our refund right down the middle, we each take our remaining half and go our separate ways. It’s kind of a celebration of our relationship over the last year and it says a lot about our relationship. We treat our income tax refund just like we treat our relationship; sometimes we do things as a couple and sometimes we do things without each other.
Whether you choose to file joint taxes most likely depends on the financial benefits. Our account gives us both scenarios and we always receive a bigger income tax refund when we file our income taxes together.
Our friends at Go Girl Finance recently published a great “how to guide” for couples who want to file joint income taxes. We loved their post so much that we just felt the need to share it with our Dinks. Go Girl Finance tells us that tax time is a great time to discuss your current finances and long-term financial goals. All the necessary paperwork will be right in front of you, and it’s important for both partners to have a solid sense of your financial situation.
If you have any couple’s tax tips we would love to hear them, leave a comment below or hit us up on Twitter.
Documents You Need to File Joint Taxes:
– All tax paperwork supplied by your employers, including W2 and 1099 forms. If you are a student, you may also receive a 1098-T form for scholarship or tuition money.
– 1099-DIV and 1099-INT forms, which will be sent if you have investments or receive interest on your bank accounts.
– Your tax returns from previous years.
– Records of your business, employee, education, childcare and medical expenses.
What You Need To Know About Filing Taxes Jointly
After you have put all your documents together, there are other key pieces of information that both you and your spouse should know:
– How much income each of you earned
– What interest was paid on any student loans
– How much you paid in points or interest on your mortgage
— What large medical expenses you incurred in the last year
– Whether you donated cash or goods
– What quarterly or state taxes were paid over the previous year
Happy tax time everyone!
Photo by epsos
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
I didn’t realize you could file jointly if you weren’t married. Are you able to because of common law marriage? I thought that differed by state though. Can you clarify? Thanks!
I think you should be more clear in your article… only a handful of states recognize common law status.
For federal filing purposes, the Internal Revenue Service allows only married taxpayers to file their taxes jointly. Taxpayers who do not have marriage licenses can file their taxes jointly if they married in a state that recognized common law marriages or if they currently reside in a state that considers them husband and wife through the state’s common law.
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