Hi Heather,

I have a question about loan repayment and marriage.  Both my husband and I are residents.  We are in our second year.  I am under IBR and he is under PAYE.  We weren’t married yet when we filed and applied for these programs last year so we filed separately,  Now that we are married, we filed joint income taxes last year (April 2015).  We both have to reapply for our respective loan repayment plans this month and I wanted to know if there is any difference in choosing to file as married or separately?  I think they pool in your online federal income taxes anyway with this determination so maybe it doesn’t matter (because we filed together for income tax purposes)?  I guess I am asking, if we choose “yes” use our combined income for our reapplication of our loans, will our payments increase? 

Thank you so much for the help!

Married couples may choose to file federal tax returns with either a “Married Filing Jointly” or “Married Filing Separately” tax filing status. If a married couple chooses the “Married Filing Jointly” tax status, the joint AGI reported on the joint tax return will be considered in calculating monthly student loan payments. The higher your AGI, the more your monthly student loan payment will be under an income-driven repayment plan, so some people will pay significantly higher student loan payments if they choose to file jointly.  If a married person wants to have his or her monthly student loan payment calculated solely on the basis of his or her individual income and student loan debt, he or she must file a separate federal income tax return. 

Married student loan borrowers can choose to either:
• file taxes jointly and have monthly payment based on joint AGI and combined student debt, or
• file taxes separately and have monthly payment based on individual AGI and individual student debt  
If a married couple files a joint federal tax return, a total student loan payment amount for the couple will be calculated taking into account both spouses’ debt and both spouses’ income.  A proportion of the total payment will be assigned to each spouse based on their share of the couple’s total student loan debt.