Comments on: Biden Should End the Marriage Penalty on Federal Student Loans https://studentloansherpa.com/end-marriage-penalty/ Expert Guidance From Personal Experience Fri, 23 Jul 2021 20:23:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Michael Lux https://studentloansherpa.com/end-marriage-penalty/comment-page-1/#comment-1976 Tue, 08 Jun 2021 02:52:56 +0000 https://studentloansherpa.com/?p=10903#comment-1976 In reply to Katie_m.

Hi Katie,

Thanks for the kind words and great questions.

1) Married filing separately is a tax consideration that is independent of your student loan plan. Any couple can file jointly or separately. Remember, income certifications last for one year, and they will look at the most recent tax return. If your husband does his yearly certification just before you get married, he potentially could have an entire year worth of REPAYE payments based upon his single status. When the yearly recert time comes around again, it sounds like you want to switch to PAYE. At that time, they will look at his most recent tax return to determine payments.

2) There isn’t a single calculator that can look at the tax and repayment issues at the same time. At least, not that I am aware of. I’d suggest using tax filing software and essentially doing your taxes twice, once jointly and once separately. Then use the Department of Education Loan Simulator to see different repayment plan options.

Best of luck to you both!

]]> By: Katie_m https://studentloansherpa.com/end-marriage-penalty/comment-page-1/#comment-1975 Mon, 07 Jun 2021 23:15:08 +0000 https://studentloansherpa.com/?p=10903#comment-1975 This is a really helpful article. Can I ask your help with a related question? I am engaged and my fiance and I would like to get married this November. He has over 100K in student loans and I have no loans anymore. His income is less than mine, and this year much less, so we’re trying to sort out both tax filing and loan repayment.

I have 2 questions:

  1. We just got engaged, and he is currently in the REPAYE program. We understand he needs to move to the IBR or PAYE program to allow us to consider filing Married Filing Jointly for 2021 without my higher income counting against his loan repayment plan (he is going for PSLF too). If he changes to PAYE or IBR now, before we get married, will he be allowed to file Married filing Separately for 2021? Or will the fact that he got REPAYE for Jan – June/July bar us from filing married filing separately for 2021? [his income will increase next year but this year is enough lower than mine that we’ve run the numbers and this looks more beneficial e.g this year our income is 120k/20k next year more like 120k/70k]. IF we are not allowed to file as married filing separately in 2021 b/c he was in REPAYE for part of 2021, it might be enough to consider waiting til early 2022 to get married (our date is not yet firm). Does this make sense?
  2. I’ve tried to learn what I can cobbling it together online. Do you know any good calculators that address these issues of how to look at loan repayment plans and tax filing together?

If there is a better place to ask you this, please let me know. I’m very grateful for your article.

Katie

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