So the hubby and I seperated last year, but are still married legally (Finalizing divorce in May...woot).

However, we're going to go ahead and file our taxes jointly so we can get a better tax breaks etc.

My question is, we live in different places, and both of us just want to make sure our refunds are given to the right person, and the refund amounts are according to the person's paychecks.

I usually use Taxslayer, however will I need to go to H and R or something to find the seperate amounts for refunds and have the refunds sent to different bank accounts?

1/19/2010 10:18:11 AM

I assume that you both have your own W2s. Thus, each of you would file with just your respective W2s and/or 1099s. The refund just gets sent to the address/account that you list on your return.

1/19/2010 10:32:46 AM

Isn't that if we file married-seperate instead of joint, tho?

1/19/2010 10:39:58 AM

yeah, I would say that you should do separate returns to figure out what each of you would receive individually ... then just take that ratio, and apply it to the final joint return amount to figure out what each of you gets.

As far as separate bank accounts though ... that aint gonna work. Just have it direct deposited into a still shared bank account (if you have one), or whoevers is most trustworthy .. (or your divorce attorney as escrow).

[Edited on January 19, 2010 at 10:42 AM. Reason : .]

1/19/2010 10:41:10 AM

If you're filing jointly, it's all going to come down to trust.

1/19/2010 10:54:23 AM

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8888.pdf

As for figuring up how much each of you should receive I'd probably use a ratio of gross incomes to figure the percentage (eg you gross 60k he grosses 40k, therefore you get 60% of the refund).

I realize this isn't going to be super accurate... I mean in my scenario where you gross 60k and he grosses 40k his refund could be larger depending on how the W-4's got filled out. I assume that if yall want to file jointly then you are willing to avoid the hassle of going through the trouble of calculating the "true" numbers, I mean you'd probably end up paying a lawyer/cpa enough to sort it out to justify filing separately anyways. All one of you would have to do is want to file separately which would force the other to also file separately (then you open a new can of worms like head of household filing status if applicable). You'd get a more accurate "fair" refund that way, but the overall refund would be less as you already know.

[Edited on January 19, 2010 at 11:18 AM. Reason : ]

1/19/2010 11:15:42 AM

Thanks for all the advice. We decided to file Married-Seperate since we're not exactly on wanting to talk to eachother terms, haha.

I hope this doesn't kill my refund too harshly.

1/19/2010 12:38:55 PM

IBmambagrl tells you you should try and work things out with your 'hubby'

1/19/2010 2:47:13 PM

At first I was like 'divorced, ALREADY??? wtf'

And then I looked at one of your old threads about the in-laws, and ...yeah.

1/19/2010 2:59:27 PM

There are some Nostradamuses in this thread

message_topic.aspx?topic=534508&page=1

1/19/2010 3:19:08 PM

I would love to know what went wrong with the marriage.

1/19/2010 3:21:58 PM

Meff...most stuff is kinda private, unless stated on the forums

Pretty much I can slam it down to...the person you are at 19 is not the person you are at 24. And things you can tolerate in college, change drastically when you have a career.

And if he's a whiner and a mama's boy at 19...that doesn't change after marriage either

Either way, decided to just file married-seperate to avoid any scuffles, accusations, or actually having to tolerate each other for an hour.

And side note...that bridesmaid and I parted ways(as well as the rest of any joint friends) last spring and we're no longer on speaking terms.

1/19/2010 3:41:46 PM

not to go off topic here but I'm confused. You are already filing for divorce but after looking at the time stamps of the linked thread its back in July of 2008 which tells me you weren't married at the time of the thread, when did you get married exactly?

1/19/2010 3:46:07 PM

October of 2008...asked for a divorce March 2009, haha. Moved out May. Couldn't-be-happier.

1/19/2010 3:48:35 PM

OmarBadu

Quote :

"what's the over/under currently for this marriage - i'll take the under if it's anything more than 2 years"

I guess he won that thread.

1/19/2010 4:09:35 PM

This thread is unintentionally funny due to the other thread. Wow short marriage. At least you got out before the fuck trophies came along.

1/19/2010 4:19:09 PM

LOL, nah...keep the love coming. It is what it is, better to realize it now then 10 years down the line when we ended up having kids or a house together.

1/19/2010 4:33:32 PM

^^^I think the kicker for me was MeatSticks response to that...

Quote :

"We've already been together 4.5...so I'm not worried."

[Edited on January 19, 2010 at 4:34 PM. Reason : ^]

1/19/2010 4:33:53 PM

so what benefits do you get when you file taxes as a married couple? this will be my first time doing this

1/19/2010 4:46:02 PM

^mainly a lower tax bracket.

1/19/2010 4:53:46 PM

Great thread

Quote :

"fuck trophies"

I chuckled

1/19/2010 5:10:43 PM

^^^ You can also take larger deductions.

1/19/2010 5:25:29 PM

Including the timestamp for the epic winningnes of a thread by OmarBadu

Quote :

" OmarBadu zidik 23045 Posts user info edit post what's the over/under currently for this marriage - i'll take the under if it's anything more than 2 years 7/21/2008 9:56:37 AM "

1/19/2010 5:52:56 PM

lol thanks for the PM as well - who would have guessed

1/19/2010 6:02:58 PM

The refund can be split into two different accounts. Need to use form 8888. Married filing separate is a horrible filing status.

1/19/2010 11:12:54 PM

i think anybody could see from a mile away that this marriage would fail

why even get married if its not gonna last but a few months?

sounds like you guys should have just remained single

1/20/2010 12:25:12 AM

i am a 1099 AKA a contractor (commercial real estate broker). is it more beneficial to set up a LLC or a small corporatoin for tax purposes. I am 100% commission, but other brokers in my office say to give yourself a $2,000/month salary and disberse a dividend at year's end. apparently it allows us to not pay a portion of either federal/state taxes. anyone have a clear understanding of which is better for a 1099?

1/20/2010 7:50:49 AM

Yes...because I went into getting married thinking "Hey I have a year to spend waiting to finalize a divorce, waste my money, my parents money, and have a "Divorce" stamp on my forhead...."

1/20/2010 9:45:23 AM

^^^^ I've got to wonder what the monetary difference between filing jointly or separate would be and whether that difference would be worth the aggravation. Seems like it would be simple enough to run the numbers through tax preparation software and just click a radio button to see the difference.

Maybe factor into that equation how filing jointly would benefit the person with the higher income and be a negative to the person with the lower income, so if you're the person with the lower income then it isn't so bad... don't know if it even works that way, maybe the opposite, but it's an idea.


[Edited on January 20, 2010 at 1:19 PM. Reason : -]

1/20/2010 1:05:05 PM

If one spouse has moderately higher income then the other it is almost always better to file married filing jointly. If the incomes are similar then married filing separately is ok. Of course this is assuming both spouses are using the standard deduction.

1/20/2010 9:48:48 PM

most tax software will have an analysis function before you submit that allows you to see which option is the most advantageous

1/20/2010 10:08:23 PM