Married Filing Jointly

Married Filing Jointly means:
a filing-status option for married couples who agree to report their combined income and deductions. In a Married Filing Joint filing status, the taxpayer is married and both he/she and his/her spouse agree to file a joint return. (On a joint return, the taxpayer reports his combined income and deduct his/her combined allowable expenses.) For a given level of income, filing jointly typically results in a lower tax than filing separately. However, when the spouses have approximately equal incomes, the joint return may often produce a higher tax than two single individuals would pay; this result is known as the marriage penalty. IRC (check if this IRC provision is current here) §6013.

Description and Definition of Married Filing Jointly

The filing status used by most married couples. When couples file jointly they combine their income and deductions on the same tax return. Couples must be married as of the end of the tax year to file jointly.

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

• Married Filing Jointly in the West's Tax Law Dictionary
• Married Filing Jointly in “A Dictionary of Taxation”