Wondering about combined incomes applying towards loan payments under different repayment plans.
Is there any benefit in spouses filing separately under REPAYE? Joint has more benefits on the tax filing, but will this increase loan payments?
How does this change if one spouse qualifies for PAYE?
Most important: Can they file jointly while one is a student (for education credit), and then separately thereafter?
REPAYE / PAYE, marriage, taxes Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
-
Tiago Splitter
- Posts: 17148
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:20 am
Re: REPAYE / PAYE, marriage, taxes
Under REPAYE your filing status doesn't matter and your spouse's income will be counted either way. Under PAYE you can file separately to avoid having your spouse's income counted.Anonymous User wrote:Wondering about combined incomes applying towards loan payments under different repayment plans.
Is there any benefit in spouses filing separately under REPAYE? Joint has more benefits on the tax filing, but will this increase loan payments?
How does this change if one spouse qualifies for PAYE?
Most important: Can they file jointly while one is a student (for education credit), and then separately thereafter?
I have not heard of there being any issue under PAYE of filing jointly some years and separately other years. You'll recertify your income each year based on the prior year's tax return.
-
A. Nony Mouse
- Posts: 29293
- Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:51 am
Re: REPAYE / PAYE, marriage, taxes
You can change from filing jointly to filing separately and vice versa at any time - that's just your choice on your taxes, nothing to do with the payment plan. A payment plan doesn't commit you to file your taxes a certain way.
If you file jointly, they count both incomes, so the 10% cap is higher because your income is higher. If your spouse has student loans they're supposed to take that into account, but generally, filing jointly just means you'll pay more. PAYE lets you get around this by filing separately and just counting your income. You will need to do the math on how filing singly changes your taxes and if the increased taxes eat up any loan savings, though.
On REPAYE it doesn't matter whether you file jointly or separately, they will count your spouse's income regardless.
(Also in certain community property states you can't really file separately - I don't know if it's just not allowed or if your incomes are just treated as joint even if you file separately.)
If you file jointly, they count both incomes, so the 10% cap is higher because your income is higher. If your spouse has student loans they're supposed to take that into account, but generally, filing jointly just means you'll pay more. PAYE lets you get around this by filing separately and just counting your income. You will need to do the math on how filing singly changes your taxes and if the increased taxes eat up any loan savings, though.
On REPAYE it doesn't matter whether you file jointly or separately, they will count your spouse's income regardless.
(Also in certain community property states you can't really file separately - I don't know if it's just not allowed or if your incomes are just treated as joint even if you file separately.)
