The love struck are expected to spend USD16.9 billion on Valentine’s gifts this year. This doesn’t include the amount their Valentine may be costing them in taxes, according to CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business.
“Whether your marriage is a tax-savings bliss or bust depends on a variety of factors like whether or not you and your spouse decide to file jointly or separately, your income level and just how attuned you are as individuals and as a couple to making the right tax moves,” says David Bergstein, CPA, a tax analyst for CCH CompleteTax, an online tax preparation and e-filing service for the do-it-yourself taxpayer.
Bergstein offers four ideas to improve your tax situation:
1. Volunteer to take charge of the taxes this year. Volunteering means you cannot trade doing the taxes for a year’s worth of cooking dinner or taking out the garbage despite the temptation.
2. If you are getting a refund, equally invest in his and her IRAs. It can help score brownie points that you are thinking about your loved one for the long term.
3. Don’t spend the refund on candy or flowers. It’s a joint refund and your spouse is going to think you’re a cheapskate if they are buying half of their own gift.
4. If you owe Uncle Sam because your spouse messed up on his or her withholdings from last year’s paycheck, erroneously decided to sell stocks that triggered big taxable gains at year end or managed to lose all the receipts for the charitable deductions you made throughout the year, smile and reply.