Tax questions after getting married?

[stanw]

I've always done my own taxes through TurboTax, though some things have changed over the past year:

- I got married at the end of June 2011
- I bought a house with my wife mid December 2011 (I paid a small amount of interest on the house)

I have a W2 and some 1099 work, and savings interest. I made about $80k and she made about $75k, though we were not married the entire year.

1. Can anyone give me any advice for what I might want to start thinking about with regards to taxes since I just got married and bought a house? Any deductions I should consider? Anything else?

2. How do we file our return since we were only married for part of the year? Do we still file our return as though we were married the whole year?

Thanks!

[mwcpa]

"How do we file our return since we were only married for part of the year? Do we still file our return as though we were married the whole year?"

the easy one first..... your marital status on December 31st is your marital status for the year (except in the case of someone passing away where special rules come into play).

"Can anyone give me any advice for what I might want to start thinking about with regards to taxes"

A life changing event may require the need for a sit down with a qualified professional to review your unique situation, my comments here will be general in nature only.

1. Do not forget any "real estate" taxes paid on the HUD-1, not all taxes on the HUD-1 are deductible, only "real estate" taxes are.
2. Deduct any mortgage interest paid on form 1098 (probably not much, if at all, if you closed in December 2011)
3. Consider any improvements made to the new home that may be energy efficient and available for a tax credit... see form 5695... www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf
4. Consider married filing separate. While in 99% of case this may not be advantageous you could be part of the 1% that gets a benefit (no reference is made to the OWS protests of 99 and 1, it was unintentional... I assist maybe 1 married couple a year where MFS is better for tax reasons, and they have really unusual facts and circumstances).

I still feel you may be better served seeking a qualified tax professional to review your actual facts... you should also meet with a qualified investment counselor/financial planner and discuss your now joint finances.... I cannot count the times (myself included) that when you get married all of the moneys that gets wasted on duplicate items, while I have some financial planning related training (not a stock picker though, I can help people figure out what they can and cannot afford and point out waste, excess), I was amazed at all of the wasted moneys between myself and my wife when we first got married (almost 10 years ago)....

Also, review the beneficiaries of retirement plans, life insurance polices (as a new homeowner you should review the need for life insurance, can you or your spouse afford the home if something happened to the the other), update Wills, etc.

[stanw]

Thank you.