Author Topic: Housing allowance + married filing separately  (Read 837 times)

janelikes

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Housing allowance + married filing separately
« on: January 10, 2017, 02:34:25 PM »
Hello - newbie here. Loving the forums so far -
My question is about taxes. We have hired a tax guy the last few years ($400) and I want to see if I can manage my families taxes on my own this year. Married filing separately because I am doing the public service loan forgiveness and on IBR loan repayment. I work for a non-profit and my husband is a church paster. The way I understand his tax situation is that he is treated like a contract employee (taxed up the wazoooo) but also gets a housing allowance, which allows him to pay for housing related expenses tax-free.
Last year we filed seperately and I paid $1500 back the government. In fact, we have had to pay back a ton to the govt for the last 10 years because we hadn't been managing my husband's withholdings correctly. I think we do now since we haven't owed for him in a few years, but I don't really like this stuff and am just now trying not to avoid learning more about our situation.
Any idea how I can do the math for the difference between us filing together or separately? We save on my student loan payment but lose out on the married tax benefit.
Second question is, if I do our own taxes, any idea how to manage the housing allowance stuff or how to learn about it?
Thanks for any insights you may have.

 

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