<prompt> Human: Hi personal finance, we live in Texas and are newly married. I got a full time job making 43,000 a year with benefits woohoo! and plenty of advancement opportunities, and theyll help pay for a grad degree next year! I of course plan on maxing out 401k and all that good stuff.My wife is in grad school for her field, and is currently working in it for 32,000 a year. Im getting a significant raise and was trying to figure out our new budget with taxes. But, I put in our salaries on smartasset.com and when I put in our taxes married with 75K our tax liability is 14,916 counting FICA. but if we were to each file as single people, it appears as though our tax liability would only come out to 12,874. Is there a reason for this? Am I doing something wrong, or would it be better for my wife and I to file as single people?  <response>: would it be better for my wife and I to file as single people?You dont get that option as a married person. You can file as married filing jointly or married filing separately. 