The Challenge: Two professionals got married in November. They both kept their W-4s set to “Single,” assuming they would file separately to keep things simple. This resulted in a surprise tax bill. The Moorhead Financials Solution: * We ran the projections for both “Married Filing Jointly” and “Married Filing Separately.”
- By filing jointly and applying the student loan interest deduction (which phases out for single high-earners but expands for married couples), we optimized their brackets. The Result: We erased the surprise bill, generated a $3900 IRS tax refund, and updated their W-4s with their employers for the upcoming year.