<prompt> Human: Hello, I am in a long-term, committed relationship and will eventually marry the girl that I am with now. Neither of us have been in a rush to tie the knot bc of personal school and long-distance and financial student loans, saving for a house down payment, etc.. Our initial thoughts were to perhaps get engaged this year and then married in 2018 when she finishes grad school. However, I did a quick calculation to see how much we could potentially save in federal income tax if we got married. I am currently making around 155k, while she is unemployed since she is a student in a rigorous program 2 years left. My taxable income is 155k - 10.3k std deduction and personal exemption...no house yet so not itemizing - 20.5k maxing 401k and 2.5k into HSA 124.2k, which when filing single has a federal tax bill of around 27.8k. Hers, like I said, is 0 with her being unemployed.If we get married, the taxable income drops by an additional 10.3k due to the larger std deduction and extra personal exemption. If we file married, the federal tax bill comes out to be about 20k, thus saving us around 8k for this and next year while she still is a student. Wed also save a bit being able to have her on my health insurance plan maybe about 100month and by deducting the 4k for her student tuition 1k bc of the 25 marginal rate. Our MAGI would be too high to qualify for the Lifetime Learning Credit has to be under 130k and I believe ours would be 155k - 20.5k 134.5k...if Im missing something and we would qualify, thatd be a credit of 2k instead of the tuition deduction.She requires student loans, but fortunately, none of them are need-based, so marriage would not affect that. Is there anything I am missing? Financially-speaking, it seems like a no-brainer. Thanks.  <response>: The tax code is generally most favorable to married couples where only one spouse works, and least favorable to high-earning dual-earning spouses. You fall into the former. 