9 Tax Benefits for Married Couples

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There are a few certainties in life — such as death or taxes. If you have already agreed to be with someone until death do you part, it may be worth exploring what kind of tax benefits marriage can present. It may not be considered romantic, but offering your spouse tax deductions or even a higher tax return could be a great way to show you care.

Tax Benefits of Marriage

If you want to enhance the life you have together and reduce the amount you are paying together when filing your taxes, it is good to know what kind of tax credits married couples can get. Get ready to tie the knot around a better tax return with these nine tax benefits for married couples.

1. Tax shelter
2. Lower your tax bracket
3. Qualify for additional tax credits
4. Benefit shop
5. Estate protection
6. IRA for jobless spouses
7. Charitable deductions
8. Personal residence exemption
9. Time and expense efficiency

1. Tax Shelter

Marriage is about balance, and paying your taxes is no exception. If your spouse is losing money as a small business owner, or in some other form of business, you could turn this tax liability into a tax benefit by filing a joint return.

The partner who is in the red cannot take advantage of certain common tax deductions, but the other partner, who is earning money, can take advantage of those unused deductions by writing them off in a joint tax return.

2. Lower Your Tax Bracket

The dreaded marriage penalty used to be more of a tax liability than a tax benefit. This is when the combination of incomes for spouses who earn similar incomes would elevate them into a higher tax bracket. Though this still can occur, Congress has taken steps to reduce the penalty so that what each partner pays in taxes isn’t much different than what they paid when they were single.

This can benefit a couple with a large disparity in income. The lower earner’s salary combined with the higher income can bring the couple down to a lower tax bracket overall as a unit, thus reducing your taxes.

For example, let’s say a couple married in 2024. One individual earned $60,000 per year, while the other earned $200,000 per year. According to the 2024 tax brackets, the individual earning $60,000 per year would pay the 22% tax rate for their 2024 income, while the individual earning $200,000 per year would pay the 32% tax rate on their 2024 income.

But if those individuals married and filed jointly, their incomes are combined for tax purposes. Their combined incomes would be subject to 24% tax, rather than the higher 32% tax rate that one spouse had been paying on their $200,000 income.

3. Qualify for Additional Tax Credits

Married couples filing jointly may qualify for certain tax credits that they wouldn’t have otherwise qualified for.

The child and dependent care credit is available to couples or individuals who paid for child care expenses so that they could work. The credit is based on an individual’s or couple’s income and the chidlcare costs they incurred.

The American opportunity tax credit is a maximum credit of $2,500 per year. This credit is for education expenses that an eligible student pays during their first four years of higher education.

When a married couple files jointly, these credits are applied to the single return, whereas only one spouse might have benefitted from the credits when filing as a single individual. The credits can help reduce a couple’s overall tax burden.

4. Health Benefit Shop

Though the benefit shop is not a real store, it is a good option for couples when both spouses have benefit packages from their jobs. This means it is time to go shopping for the most valuable benefits in the bunch and apply something from each plan to varying areas of your shared lives, such as dependent care or lowering taxable income through a flexible spending account. This will generally improve your tax situation.

Since you fund a flexible spending account (FSA) with pretax income through a payroll deduction, you can use your FSA to pay your medical expenses with that pretax money. In other words, more of your income goes toward paying expenses with an FSA than it would if you paid tax on the income and then used your take-home portion to pay for medical expenses. The IRS has increased the maximum FSA contributions to $3,300 per individual in 2025, so you and your spouse could contribute a total of $6,600 to your FSA accounts.

While you can’t apply your FSA spending to the same expenses, maximizing your FSA contributions can help you to cover medical costs without having to pay taxes on those funds. Just remember that you must use all of the money on your FSA account by the end of the calendar year or you’ll lose those remaining funds.

5. Estate Protection

Losing a spouse is hard enough without having to worry about protecting assets or estate taxes. Marriage protects the surviving spouse under federal tax laws. This means, if you were to die and leave your spouse all your money, it would not generate an estate tax, which carries through to the end of their life. The contract of marriage protects your partner along with your assets in your absence, without the risk of a tax penalty.

6. IRA for Jobless Spouses

Typically, someone without paid employment would not be able or eligible to fund an individual retirement account, better known as an IRA, if they’re single. However, a married person without paid employment can give an IRA contribution from a joint account as long as they are a taxpayer. The IRS allows individuals to contribute a maximum of $7,000 to an IRA in 2024. Those age 50 and up can contribute an extra $1,000 per year.

IRA benefits can be much higher for married couples than for single individuals. Individuals with high incomes who weren’t eligible to contribute a full amount to an IRA, or who weren’t eligible to contribute to an IRA at all, may be able to partially or fully fund an IRA once married. The IRA contribution limits are higher for married taxpayers than they are for single taxpayers, giving married couples more opportunity to fund retirement accounts.

7. Charitable Deductions

The amount you can receive back for your charitable contributions will be probably less for standard deductions than if you do itemized deductions starting for the tax year 2022. By filing with your spouse, you can increase the standard deduction and even potentially carry the excess amount over to the next tax year.

8. Personal Residence Exemption

If you decide to sell the home that you own with your spouse, you could keep more of the sale proceeds if you’re married than if you’re single. Under the IRS personal residence exclusion, you may be able to exclude $250,000 of the profits from the sale from your income if you’re single, and up to $500,000 if you’re married and file a joint return.

You’ll need to meet certain qualifications for the personal residence exclusion. You must have owned and used your home as your main residence for at least two years out of the previous five years before you sell it. If you qualify for the exemption, being married and filing jointly can maximize the proceeds that you’re able to exclude from your taxable income.

9. Time and Expense Efficiency

It may sound obvious, but if you think about the amount of time and effort that goes into filing your taxes, wouldn’t it make more sense to just do it once rather than twice? If you are sharing your assets anyway, and want to get more tax credits, it may make sense to file a joint tax return. If you use an accountant or tax preparation service, filing a joint return can also be less expensive than filing separately.

Final Take

When you get married, be sure to check your withholding and make any changes necessary. According to the IRS, newly married couples are required to fill out a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate within 10 days of getting married. If getting married pushes you up into a new tax bracket, you may want to increase your withholding so that you don’t have to pay extra taxes when you file your annual taxes.

Additionally, if you change your name when you get married, be sure to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) to update your records with your new last name. When you file your tax return using your new last name, it must match the SSA records. If the name doesn’t match the SSA records, the IRS might reject your tax return.

Be prepared for some changes during your first year of marriage, too. You might see changes in your tax bracket and your tax rates. If you sell your home, marriage might allow you to keep more of the profits. You’ll have the option to file jointly or separately, and should think carefully about which option is right for you. Navigating these changes can be a challenge, so don’t hesitate to contact a tax professional to help you understand the options and implications of marriage.

Though nothing is entirely tax-free, it is helpful to be able to spot the benefits of where and how you can save on your taxes. Maybe the happily-ever-after notion of marriage is in part due to the tax breaks.

Caitlyn Moorhead contributed to the reporting of this article.

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