Should I File My Taxes Jointly? What It Means and What It Can Get You

The 2025 tax season wraps up in nearly two weeks, however loads of you may not have had the time file but. While this may occur to the most effective of us, the clock is ticking and you’ve got loads of selections to make between now and Tax Day, together with which submitting standing to make use of. You can file as a person otherwise you would possibly choose to file collectively when you’re eligible. But what’s going to that really imply for you?

Joint submitting is widespread amongst married taxpayers, with an estimated 95% of {couples} selecting that possibility when submitting their taxes every year. Even as fewer Americans are getting married in comparison with previous many years, a 2017 Pew Research research discovered that joint filers nonetheless pay a majority of the revenue taxes within the US.

If you have got questions on joint submitting and what all of it means, learn on for all the small print. For extra tax protection, discover out every part you might want to find out about W-2 varieties and see how revenue brackets have modified in 2025. 

What is joint submitting?

Joint submitting, additionally known as “married submitting collectively,” is a tax possibility that mixes the incomes of a married couple into one tax return. This makes each individuals answerable for the taxes on all of that revenue.

Who is eligible for joint submitting?

Joint submitting will be performed by any couple that’s legally married and when each of them consent to submitting that manner. Non-married {couples} in long-term relationships usually are not eligible.

A couple of eligibility wrinkles price realizing about: A pair that’s not residing collectively however hasn’t legally separated can nonetheless file collectively. Also, somebody whose partner died through the tax yr can file collectively, however provided that they have not remarried.

What does joint submitting get you?

The important draw of joint submitting for lots of married {couples} is the lowered tax charge. Despite having a better mixed revenue, joint filers usually have decrease tax charges than single filers, so most often it saves each of them some cash. Joint submitting standing additionally permits you to mix your particular person commonplace deductions. 

Are there any drawbacks to joint submitting?

Joint submitting can have some drawbacks, notably if one partner makes loads lower than the opposite. If that distinction is sufficiently big, combining incomes would possibly end result within the lower-earning partner getting taxed at a better charge than they might have by themselves. 

Joint submitting would possibly trigger some {couples} to exceed the revenue restrict for claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, or trigger them to get much less cash from the Child Tax Credit.

For extra, see how pure disasters have impacted this yr’s tax deadlines.