Hello Heather Jarvis and All,

First, thanks to everyone on this site for making it the most helpful and informative out there.

My situation is we’re planning a marriage in the middle of next year. My fiance, a public school teacher, is in IBR, and if my income is factored in, it would be a big burden on us because she may not even qualify anyone for the program. So filing separately for the next ten years is the plan so that the payments are based on her income.

The problem is that we’re planning to marry in April, and the IBR rectification is in June. And from what I read here, it looks like they will want take into account the spouse’s income if we don’t have have a MFS tax return!
http://askheatherjarvis.com/forums/viewthread/9159/#2114
“Congratulations!  So when you recertify income you will be asked to import your most recent tax return data and that will be used to calculate your payment.  You will be asked if your current income is “significantly different” than the income reported on your most recent federal income tax return in which case you will be required to submit paper “alternative documentation of income described this way: “You must provide documentation of all taxable income that you and *****your spouse***** (if applicable) currently receive ...”

So yes—we’d have on file a single tax return for my fiance, from the year before we were married. But then it looks like she must also submit docs about my income. That would make for very high payments, right? I’m hoping that if their is no joint return on file, then they will using the single person’s income. But nothing I’ve read or found has stated that.

And just to check, please correct me if I am wrong—but you only NEED to recertify, on your anniversary of IBR - its not like I am required to do the day after your wedding?

So a timeline would would be:
- April Marriage
- June is the IBR anniv—no tax return on file.
- ***From June until I file in February of next year—>  payments are based on spouse’s income as well, payments through the roof !!!
- February onward, I can submit my filed MFS tax return and get payments back where I want them

So—what can I do? Seems like the thing is to CHANGE THE WEDDING DATE to be in July, so that by the time the IBR anniversary arrives, I can have the MFS tax return in hand? Kind of crazy. But is this what I have to do ??? Please help ):

Update: So I’ve been reading over the IBR application. It says “Is your current income or your spouse’s current income (if you completed Section 3 or file a joint federal income tax return) significantly different than the income used to determine the Adjusted Gross Income* (AGI) reported to the IRS on your most recently filed federal income tax return?”. So since we’ve not yet filed—then we do not “joint federal income tax return” ( kinda silly that is present a tense verb—confusing )? So it is sounding like the application is saying that income should be ignored during the certification unless we’ve filed or already ‘file’ as MFJ?

I am a parent who signed for PLUS loans, so my situation is a little different.  However, we file mfs and that means my wife’s income is not included in my ICR calculation.  I have to use ICR instead of IBR because I borrowed for my daughters.  Don’t hang your hat on anything I say, though.  All I can tell you is our experience and I don’t hold myself out as an expert on education debt except how to get buried under a pile of it.  That said, it does appear the thing to do is to file mfs.  I’d recommend preparing your taxes both ways and see what difference it makes to your total tax bite.  Then I’d compare what difference it makes to the IBR payment.  I’d expect it would be better to go mfs but would compare both approaches to make sure.