Should we get married before the end of the year?

Seeking Advice
1

Hi everyone,

I’m engaged, and our wedding is planned for 2025. But I recently learned that the IRS considers you married for the entire year if you get married before December 31. This got me thinking—should my fiancée and I get a marriage license before the end of the year to save on taxes?

Here’s our situation: we live in California. She makes around $65k, and I make about $240k. One issue is that she already contributed to her Roth IRA, so we’d have to sort that out.

Does anyone have experience with this or know if the potential tax savings would make it worth it? Thanks!

2

Do you know your taxable income, not just gross? That’s after things like pre-tax retirement contributions, health insurance, and FSA.

3

Zion said:
Do you know your taxable income, not just gross? That’s after things like pre-tax retirement contributions, health insurance, and FSA.

Let’s say her taxable income is about $50k and mine is around $210k. We both just contribute to 401k accounts.

4

@Lior
You’d save about $900 being married, assuming you didn’t itemize deductions as singles and don’t both have student loans to repay.

5

Zion said:
@Lior
You’d save about $900 being married, assuming you didn’t itemize deductions as singles and don’t both have student loans to repay.

I thought marriage taxes were supposed to save more than that! Thanks for clarifying though.

6

@Lior
It depends on how your incomes line up. If one of you earns significantly less than the other, there’s usually a bigger benefit. In your case, about $8k gets moved to the 12% bracket, which gives around $800 in savings.

7

Zion said:
@Lior
You’d save about $900 being married, assuming you didn’t itemize deductions as singles and don’t both have student loans to repay.

I do have some student loans I’ve been paying, but I don’t think it would change the savings much.

8

@Lior
If only one of you is paying loans, that’s fine. If both of you are, the savings shrink a bit.

9

Zion said:
@Lior
You’d save about $900 being married, assuming you didn’t itemize deductions as singles and don’t both have student loans to repay.

Am I doing this right? I used a tax calculator:

  • Me (single, $235k with $22.5k 401k): around $74k in taxes
  • Fiancée (single, $65k with $17k 401k): around $10k in taxes

Combined as singles: ~$84k. But as married, it says $75k. That looks like a $9k savings, right?

10

@Lior
The calculator includes FICA taxes, which don’t change with marriage. To get accurate results, exclude FICA taxes for all three scenarios.

11

Zion said:
@Lior
The calculator includes FICA taxes, which don’t change with marriage. To get accurate results, exclude FICA taxes for all three scenarios.

Ah, I see what you mean. That makes sense now. Thanks!

12

Same situation here! My fiancée and I secretly got married for tax reasons with our big wedding planned for 2025. We’re also in California, same combined income. I’ll have to recharacterize my Roth contributions too. Our tax advisor said we’d save, so we did it.

If you look at the brackets, you’ll notice that filing separately puts one of you in the 32% bracket, but filing jointly avoids it. The first $47k is taxed at 12% instead of 22%, which saves $4k right there, plus savings in the higher brackets. Merging finances made this an easy decision for us.

13

@Vann
If it weren’t for the Roth IRA contribution, I’d have done it already! We were planning on a January marriage, but the savings might make it worth doing now.

14

Lior said:
@Vann
If it weren’t for the Roth IRA contribution, I’d have done it already! We were planning on a January marriage, but the savings might make it worth doing now.

Yeah, it’s worth considering. Many brokers can help recharacterize contributions as nondeductible and backdoor them into your Roth. It’s surprisingly simple.

15

You might be better off waiting until after January 1 to avoid dealing with the Roth IRA issue.

16

Ellis said:
You might be better off waiting until after January 1 to avoid dealing with the Roth IRA issue.

Better for financial reasons or just to avoid the hassle?

17

Lior said:

Ellis said:
You might be better off waiting until after January 1 to avoid dealing with the Roth IRA issue.

Better for financial reasons or just to avoid the hassle?

To save $900, you’d need to withdraw funds from the Roth and handle any earnings this year. My advice: your fiancée should keep her retirement fund intact. Rushing to the courthouse for $900 might not be worth it.

18

@Ellis
Does she have a traditional IRA? She might be able to recharacterize and convert instead.

19

Valen said:
@Ellis
Does she have a traditional IRA? She might be able to recharacterize and convert instead.

He didn’t mention that, but if they wait until next year, it could work.

20

@Ellis
It might be possible now too.