Taxes

Once again, it is time to gather up all of our paperwork, sit down, and do our annual income taxes. Mine should be rather simple, as all I have is my unemployment, but my partner, as a substitute teacher, has multiple employers, which means multiple employer information to fill out. And by multiple, I mean seven, as he is in that many school districts and still can’t get a job every day.

Being that we still are not legally recognized as married, we have to file separately, so one of us does the simple form, and the other fills out the deduction form for the house, donations, and anything else. With the exception of one year, I usually get the simple form, because it usually works in our favor to have my partner enter all of his school loan information, and plus it makes sense to only have to pay for one filing, rather than split everything up between us as it will all just end up in the same bank account anyway.

Which got me wondering, how do other unmarried folk with joint assets handle tax season? Do they go about it in the same way we do, or do they split everything? I have a lot of conversations in my head that never make it into the real world, and the only logical answer I can come up with is that separate filers probably go about it the same way we do. Unless, of course, you have individual assets you don’t want claimed by your other half.

So, this being the first full year collecting unemployment, I don’t know what to expect when I file. Will I get a refund? Will I have to owe? I made sure to have a portion taken out for taxes, and it was the only option available besides not have a portion taken out for taxes, so I’m hoping that covers it and I break even at the very least. But if not and I do owe, at least my partner finished his taxes and is receiving a refund, which we will be putting in our savings account for a rainy day fund. I just hope we don’t have too many more rainy days.