Re: Official date of wedding for tax purposes

From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
Subject: Re: Official date of wedding for tax purposes
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 23:11:39 -0400

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[Disclaimer: this is my opinion, not advice.  I am not a professional.]

>A friend of mine is getting married next January 2, and makes about
>twice as much as his fiancee, and is therefore concerned about the
>marriage penalty for income taxes.  He is worried that since Jan 2

Given that he makes twice as much as his fiancee, they'll in all
likelihood have a marriage *benefit*.  Married people with very
unequal incomes pay less tax than they did as singles.  Married
people with similar incomes pay more tax than they did as singles.

>is a Saturday and Jan 1 is a holiday, that the marriage license
>must be signed before the wedding on Dec 31, and therefore they

I'm pretty sure that signing for the license is not the marriage.
The person performing the ceremony, civil or religious, also,
I believe, must sign the license, in effect transforming it into
a marriage certificate, and so the official date of the marriage
is the date of the ceremony.

Of course, given the facts you said, they would, as stated above,
probably save money if they did in fact get married 12/31/98 instead
of 1/2/99.

Rich Carreiro
rlcarr@animato.pn.com
P5-100/RedHat Linux 4.1



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