Tax Tips for Recently Married Taxpayers

If you have recently gotten married or plan to get married in the near future, the IRS has some tips to help you avoid stress at tax time.

Notify the Social Security Administration Report any name change to the Social Security Administration, so your name and SSN will match when you file your next tax return. Informing the SSA of a name change is quite simple. File a Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security card at your local SSA office. The form is available on SSA’s Web site at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/, by calling 800-772-1213 or at local offices.

Notify the IRS If you have a new address you should notify the IRS by sending Form 8822, Change of Address. You may download Form 8822 from the IRS website IRS.gov or order it by calling 800–TAX–FORM (800–829–3676).

Notify the U.S. Postal Service You should also notify the U.S. Postal Service when you move so it can forward any IRS correspondence.

Notify Your Employer Report any name and address changes to your employer(s) to ensure receipt of your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement after the end of the year.

Check Your Withholding If both you and your spouse work, your combined income may place you in a higher tax bracket. You can use the IRS Withholding Calculator available on IRS.gov to assist you in determining the correct amount of withholding needed for your new filing status. The IRS Withholding Calculator will even provide you with a new Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate you can print out and give it to your employer so they can withhold the correct amount from your pay.

IRS Withholding Calculator
Form 8822, Change of Address

Tips for Recently Married or Divorced Taxpayers

If you were married or divorced recently, there are a couple of things you’ll want to do to ensure the name on your tax return matches the name registered with the Social Security Administration.

If a taxpayer takes their spouse’s last name or if both spouses hyphenate their last names, they may run into complications if they don’t notify the SSA. If the newlyweds file a tax return using their new last names, IRS computers would not be able to match the new name with their Social Security Number.

After a divorce, taxpayers who change back to their previous last name also need to notify the SSA of the change.

Informing the SSA of a name change is quite simple. File a Form SS-5 at your local SSA office.

The form is available on SSA’s Web site at www.socialsecurity.gov, by calling 800-772-1213 or at local offices. It usually takes about two weeks to have the change verified.

Taxpayers who adopt their spouse’s child after getting married will want to make sure the children have an SSN. Taxpayers must provide SSNs for each dependent claimed on a tax return. For adopted children without SSNs, the parents can apply for an Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number – or ATIN – by filing Form W-7A, Application for Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending U.S. Adoptions with the IRS. The ATIN is a temporary number used in place of an SSN on the tax return. The W-7A is available on the IRS Web site, IRS.gov, or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

Social Security Administration
Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card (PDF)
Form W-7A, Application for Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending U.S. Adoptions (PDF 42K)

Tax Help - "What The Preacher Man Joined Together, Let NO Man Separate!"

Remember those wonderful vows you took on your wedding day? Well, those same vows can sometimes either make or break you when it comes to calculating tax liability or the reduction thereof............

One of the more common questions that I am asked is "Would it be better if my spouse and I file separately". My response is always, no, because you are going to lose out on deductions and credits.

Unfortunately, in marriage and life, everything is not always "Happily Ever After". Even if one spouse has tax liability from a previous marriage, owes child support or student loans, filing jointly is always the best remedy. The one thing that most couples do not realize is that you can file jointly and reap the best benefits but yet file Form 8857 for Innocent Spouse relief.

Some couples, even when life is good, decide to file separately. Say perhaps, one spouse gets a CP-2000 for changes on their return due to loosing deductions and benefits resulting from the separate filing. Then they decide they want to amend their returns and file jointly.

Here's the best way to remember the rules for amending a return under these circumstances:

"WHAT THE PREACHER JOINED TOGETHER,

LET NO MAN (OR THE IRS) SEPARATE!"

Once you file jointly, you cannot amend to file separate.

But.......you can go from married filing separate to married filing joint!

Read more about the deductions and credits that you can lose by filing separately:

Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information
Publication 504, Divorced or Separated Individuals
Form 8332 (PDF), Release of Claim to Exemption for Child of Divorced or Separated Parents
Tax Topic 354, Dependents

Form 2120 (PDF), Multiple Support Declaration

Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education
Tax Topic 605, Education Credits
Form 8863 (PDF), Education Credits (Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits)

Tax Topic 601, Earned Income Credit