Home Questions Filing jointly or separately the year you marry
Monday • Asked by a Lakewood couple
We are getting married in November. Should we file jointly or separately for 2026?
A full answer from Michael R. Cowell, CPA, EA, CFE. The kind of question that comes up on a first call, written out the way I would explain it.
The short answer
Your marital status on December 31 sets your status for the whole year, so a November wedding means you are married filing jointly or separately for all of 2026. Joint is better for most couples, but not all. If one spouse has large medical expenses or income-driven student loan payments, separate can occasionally win. We model it both ways once before year-end.
The December 31 rule
For tax purposes, you are treated as married for the entire year if you are married on the last day of it. A wedding in November means that for all of 2026 your only choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately. The months you were single do not get their own filing status.
Why joint filing usually wins
Married filing jointly generally has the widest tax brackets and the largest standard deduction. It also preserves eligibility for credits and benefits that married filing separately reduces or removes entirely, including several education credits and certain retirement contribution deductions. For most couples, joint is both less tax and less paperwork.
When filing separately can win
A few situations flip the answer. If one spouse has large unreimbursed medical expenses, those expenses are only deductible above a percentage of income, and that floor is lower when measured against one spouse income alone. If one spouse is on an income-driven student loan repayment plan, filing separately can keep the other spouse income out of the payment calculation, and the loan savings can outweigh the extra tax. There are also liability reasons: a joint return makes both spouses responsible for the whole tax.
The marriage penalty, the marriage bonus, and withholding
Two similar incomes combined can push a couple into a higher bracket than they faced apart, the so-called marriage penalty. Two very different incomes usually produce the opposite, a marriage bonus. Neither is something you choose; it falls out of the numbers, which is why modeling both filing methods once is worth the hour. Separately, update both W-4s after the wedding. The withholding tables assume the status on the form, and a stale single W-4 on each side can leave the couple short at filing time.
What to do
- Treat 2026 as a married year, since the November date sets the status.
- Model the return both jointly and separately once, before year-end.
- Check the special cases: large medical costs, income-driven student loans, liability concerns.
- Update both W-4s with the new status so withholding matches reality.
This is general guidance, not advice for your specific situation, and it is current as of when it was written. Tax law changes and the right answer depends on your full picture. That is what the first call is for.
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