Halloween is this Friday, then Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. The popular time for wedding season appears to be late Spring continuing through the end of the Summer (and some of us often spend our weekends attending weddings all summer). Of course, weddings are a lot of fun and they are a good time to reconnect with family and friends that we haven’t seen in a while.
This past weekend, we attended a wonderful wedding in Chicago. The event was held at The Ravenswood Event Center (check out their website – we highly recommend the venue – three story loft – a different floor for each part of the wedding). The couple could not have asked for a better October day in Chicago – it was 70 degrees! The classic cars were also a highlight to the event – pretty amazing collection, although no sign of the 1961 Ferrari 250 from Ferris Bueller.
We will probably cover the wedding industry in a future post, but wanted to highlight a couple (there are many) tax benefits to married couples:
1. You can sell your home (assuming its classified as a long term investment) and profit up to $500,000 and not pay a 20% capital gains tax (as a single tax payer, you were limited to $250,000);
2. Increased limit on charitable contributions to be deducted in a year (depending of the size of the contribution and the spouses income, the excess over the limit can be carried over the next year);
3. (not something to think about now), but if a spouse dies, the assets that are left to the surviving spouse do not generate estate tax;
4. If you plan to file jointly, chances are there will be less cost (and time) incurred in preparing your annual tax return.
We encourage you to plan ahead and meet with your accountant to determine the proper filing classification for you and your spouse. We’d be happy to review your prior year tax return to make sure it was prepared correctly and that you received all possible benefits.
Please share any other tax benefits that you have received as a married couple.