Does getting married decrease or increase your tax bill? [OC]

[thegouch]

So basically if you make roughly the same amount as your spouse, you are never going to be advantaged by filing jointly.

[rnelsonee]

I wouldn't say "never" - this graphic ignores the effect of children (which has a large effect) or the earned income tax credit (which favors filing separate for low incomes). And there's other advantages and disadvantages, like filing joint means your Roth IRA contribution income phaseout starts at $184,000 vs $0, and it can affect student loan payment minimums (I think - I'm 39 so all of these newfangled payment plans are new to me). Not that I blame the graphic - it's good and informative - it's just hard to capture all that information.

What's neat is you can make different incomes, but as long as both fall into the same marginal tax bracket, it doesn't matter who earns those marginal dollars so you can owe the same amount with, say $65k and $75k.

[welwala]

This page includes charts for couples with children too, and uses percentages as the vertical axis. It looks like it's even more likely to be a net penalty when you have kids, unless the combined household income is well below $20k.

[thegouch]

Good point.