STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Hey Karina.  I'm a little confused on your question.  Can you clarify it any?  Do you mean which filing status is more beneficial?

probably the sooner you change your status on the W4 for 2006 i think it is the better because then the right amount of taxes should be taken out of your check because you will have to file as married in 2006 whether is jointly or separately.  From all my tax classes and from what I've heard its really never beneficial to file married filing separately.  There are a few instances that it is better but I don't even remember them because it doesn't really help us regular folk. Oh and my mom is a SAHM and my dad works so basically he's the only source of income and they still file married filing jointly for the tax deductions.

LAGal use to work in Tax so she might remember more than i do but she did corporate tax so she may not be much help. maybe she will see this and reply.

thanks for bumping this karina, i'm not sure i would have seen it otherwise...i'm not sure i can be of much help since i haven't worked in tax in years and some rules have changed in recent years, but i am almost certain that you would want to file "married filing jointly" and not "married filing separately."  i don't know all the facts and circumstances here, but there are generally only a few somewhat extraordinary reasons for filing MFS and the far majority of married people file MFJ.  here's a somewhat helpful article i found that explains the differences:

http://www.quicken.com/cms/viewers/article/taxes/28392

i'm not sure that you can change your W4 to "married" or add an extra allowance for your spouse until you are actually married, but that's more something that your hr dept. would know.  They could also help determine if you should withhold more than you already are (if you claim married on your W4, it will actually withhold less than if you claim single, so I'm not sure you'd want to change your status anyways).

If you have specific questions, feel free to pm me!