Not any more. That's been clarified.

You can claim a domestic partner as a dependent (which my SO was for a short time) but not a spouse.

The reason I am asking these questions is I've seen variable advice on filing separately, which is why I initially was confused. You provided a good example w/r/t IBR, under which neither of us would fall. The other scenario I could see with filing separately is if our combined income bumps us up into a new tax bracket (which I can't imagine happens often).

I will play around with some calculators, but it appears based on brackets that it would be more advantageous to file jointly.

Again I appreciate the explanation.

Everyone else is saying to file jointly. So that makes sense.

They did have their own AGI up until August, and then they started working again a couple of weeks ago, albeit at a much lower salary. So I'm assuming that it makes the most sense to file jointly then? It looks like that does bumps us down to 22%.

Appreciate all the responses here. It is obviously my first time filing jointly.

Got it that helps.

In this case, we would file separately. Is there anything I can claim on the return for the period that they did not have a job and I was supporting us 100%?

As I said in the post, we filed for domestic partnership in August and were actually married in October. So there's a mix. In terms of my company, we are still considered domestic partners so they have insurance.

We were technically married in October. In the eyes of my company, we are still domestic partners.

Sounds like we are over that threshold since they had a salaried job up until August.

So this would be a married filing jointly piece? It's just complex since they were a domestic partner for a couple of months until we were married.

It sounds like it might be more trouble than it's worth. I figured I would ask if there is a pathway that isn't too complex.