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Employee
March 26, 2025
Question

Filing status married dependent student

  • March 26, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

Our newly married student Dependent will get some of their withholding back, but not all. Should they then file married filing separately since they had taxable income ?

2 replies

March 26, 2025

Which filing status to use would depend on a lot things such as total income, the distribution of income between spouses, available tax credits and other things. The best thing to do would be to try it filing joint and then separate to see which gives the better outcome. On average, filing married-joint will give you the better outcome.

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Hal_Al
Employee
March 26, 2025

Questions you didn't ask may be of some interest to you, since it appears that the newly weds may have low income. 

Q. Can you still claim your newly married student as a dependent and get the tuition credit? If so, which way does the family come out better?

 

For some guidance, see a similar question at 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/can-i-claim-my-daughter-who-got-married-on-december-19th-2015/00/36733

tolmamaAuthor
Employee
March 26, 2025

if they elect to file married, jointly, does he need to check yes that someone else could claim him as a dependent?

March 26, 2025

Yes.  If you are claiming him, he still needs to check the box that says someone else can claim him. 

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