Hi,

My wife and I got married in 2014 and we are now trying to decide whether to file jointly or separately for 2014.  We both have approximately $125K ($250K total) in student loans and we are both currently on IBR.  I have been working for a few years and make about $60K and my wife just started a new job in 2015 making about $50K.  The issue we have is in 2014 my wife made very little and as a result we are looking at a sizable tax refund if we file jointly.  We don’t however want to lock ourselves into higher IBR payments for the sake of a single refund but we can’t seem to figure out whether it makes sense to file separately or jointly this year.  Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

You can use this calculator to figure out monthly payment differences for married filing jointly vs. married filing separately, then compare that difference to the difference in tax refund.

https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repayment/repaymentEstimator.action