What the license changes
Your tax filing status is set by whether you are married on December 31, and it applies to the whole year. Most couples pay less filing jointly, and filing separately forfeits several credits, but a joint return makes each of you liable for all of it. Both of you should give your employers a new Form W-4, since two incomes each withheld as if it were the only one often produce a bill in April.
A wedding is also a qualifying event for health insurance. You typically have 30 days on an employer plan, or 60 on a Marketplace plan, to move onto one spouse's coverage. Two single plans are sometimes cheaper than one family plan.
Debt, credit and your state
Credit reports and scores never merge. Debt that each of you brought in stays the legal debt of the person who signed for it, although a joint mortgage application weighs both files. Debts taken on during the marriage depend on the state. In the nine community property states, including California, Texas, Arizona and Washington, most income earned and most debt incurred by either spouse during the marriage belongs to both. Elsewhere you are generally liable only for what you sign. Payments on income-driven federal student loans can depend on how you file, so run both versions.
The disclosure meeting
Sit down once with everything on the table: each person's income, every account balance, every debt with its interest rate, and both credit reports. Surprises found here are awkward, and surprises found at a mortgage desk are worse.
A prenuptial agreement is worth discussing if either of you has a business, significant assets or debts, children or an expected inheritance. To hold up, it needs full disclosure, a lawyer for each of you, and signatures well ahead of the wedding.
Paperwork after the wedding
- Order at least three certified copies of the marriage certificate.
- If you are changing your name, change it with Social Security first, then the license, the passport, banks and payroll, because the name on your tax return must match Social Security's records.
- Update beneficiaries. Federal law generally makes a spouse the default beneficiary of a 401(k), but an IRA or an insurance policy pays whoever is on the form, including a former partner.
Note Each of you should keep at least one credit card and one bank account in your own name. That preserves an individual credit history and guarantees access to money if a joint account is ever frozen.
