What Are the Tax Benefits of Getting Married?

Marriage can significantly reshape a couple’s financial landscape, particularly concerning their tax obligations. The federal tax system offers various advantages to married couples, leading to notable savings and opportunities. These benefits span income tax filing, estate planning, and retirement savings.

Understanding Joint Filing Benefits

Married couples typically have the option to file their income taxes jointly, a status that often presents more favorable tax outcomes than filing as two single individuals. For the 2025 tax year, the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly is $31,500, double the $15,750 for single filers. This choice can simplify tax preparation and reduce taxable income.

Filing jointly can also place a couple in a lower tax bracket compared to two single individuals with similar combined income. The 2025 tax brackets for married couples filing jointly have higher income thresholds for each rate. This structure can lead to “income splitting,” where combined income is taxed at lower marginal rates. For example, the 24% tax bracket for joint filers extends up to $206,700 of taxable income in 2025, compared to $103,350 for single filers.

This benefit is particularly pronounced when there is a significant disparity in income between spouses. By combining their incomes, the higher earner’s income may be taxed at a lower effective rate than if they filed as a single individual. While “Married Filing Separately” is an alternative filing status, it generally offers fewer tax advantages and is typically chosen only in specific circumstances. The married filing jointly status is usually the most advantageous for most couples.

Enhanced Tax Credits and Deductions

Married couples can find enhanced eligibility or amounts for various tax credits and deductions. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) for 2025 offers up to $2,200 per qualifying child, with significantly higher income phase-outs for joint filers. A couple filing jointly can qualify for the full credit if their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is $400,000 or below, compared to $200,000 for other filers.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) also has higher income thresholds for married couples filing jointly. For 2025, the maximum EITC for a couple with three or more children is $8,046, with income limits extending to $66,819 for joint filers. Education credits, such as the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC) and the Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC), also offer more favorable income limits. For instance, to claim the full AOTC in 2025, joint filers can have a MAGI of up to $160,000, compared to $80,000 for single filers. The LLC shares similar income phase-out ranges.

Certain itemized deductions can also be optimized. The threshold for deducting medical expenses is a percentage of adjusted gross income (AGI), and combining expenses on a joint return can help meet this threshold more easily. The deduction for student loan interest also features higher income phase-out ranges for joint filers. For 2025, the maximum deduction of $2,500 begins to phase out for joint filers with a MAGI between $170,000 and $200,000, significantly higher than for single filers.

Estate and Gift Tax Considerations

Marriage provides substantial advantages in estate and gift tax planning, offering wealth transfer mechanisms unavailable to unmarried individuals. The unlimited marital deduction allows one spouse to transfer an unlimited amount of assets to their U.S. citizen spouse, during their lifetime or at death, without incurring federal gift or estate tax. This means a surviving spouse can inherit an entire estate without immediate federal transfer tax consequences, deferring tax liabilities.

Gift splitting enables married couples to combine their individual annual gift tax exclusions for gifts to third parties. For 2025, the annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient. Through gift splitting, a couple can effectively give up to $38,000 to any number of individuals each year without triggering gift tax implications or using their lifetime exemption. This allows for more substantial tax-free transfers of wealth.

Portability further enhances estate planning. It allows the surviving spouse to utilize any unused portion of their deceased spouse’s federal estate tax exemption. For 2025, the individual federal estate tax exemption is $13.99 million. With portability, a surviving spouse can add their deceased spouse’s unused exemption to their own, potentially shielding up to $27.98 million from federal estate taxes upon their death. This helps ensure a couple’s combined exemption is fully utilized.

Retirement and Investment Account Advantages

Marital status can unlock specific tax advantages related to retirement and investment accounts, facilitating greater savings and more flexible financial planning. One benefit is the ability to make spousal IRA contributions. Even if one spouse has no earned income, the working spouse can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) on behalf of their non-working spouse. This “spousal IRA” allows the couple to contribute up to the maximum IRA contribution limit for both individuals, effectively doubling their tax-advantaged retirement savings. For 2025, the IRA contribution limit is $7,000, or $8,000 for those age 50 or older.

Roth IRAs, popular for their tax-free withdrawals in retirement, have income phase-out limits that are significantly higher for married couples filing jointly. In 2025, joint filers can contribute the full amount to a Roth IRA if their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is less than $236,000. Single filers face a lower MAGI limit of $150,000 for full contributions. For couples whose income exceeds direct contribution limits, strategies like the “backdoor Roth IRA” can sometimes be utilized.

A surviving spouse generally has more flexible options when inheriting an IRA compared to non-spousal beneficiaries. A surviving spouse can roll the inherited IRA into their own IRA, treating it as their own retirement account. This allows them to defer distributions until they reach their own retirement age and continue making contributions, offering long-term tax deferral advantages. Other beneficiaries typically face stricter rules regarding inherited IRAs.