Keeping My Marriage a Secret

**lee927** · 11-30-2006, 01:02 AM

I live in California and my fiancé is in the army. We want to get married when he comes home for Christmas, both because we don't want to wait any longer to be married and because one of the main reasons he enlisted is to save up money and he would make a lot. Is there any way we can keep my parents finding out? They love him, but they'd rather we wait until I graduate from college. They are paying for my school and claim me as a dependent. I don't know if my fiancé would need to claim me as a dependent in order to receive the extra salary. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

**rmet4nzkx** · 11-30-2006, 01:40 AM

It sounds like you are asking use to help you commit a fraud? How old are you? How old is your fiance? When do you graduate from college? If you get married before the year is out you will affect your parent's taxes for 2006 if they are able to claim you now.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 11-30-2006, 07:04 AM

The problem is that if your husband claims you as a dependent spouse and your parents claim you as a dependent child, one or both of them are going to get a call (and possibly a full audit) from the IRS.

If this is truly about hiding the marriage from your parents so they'll continue to pay for your college, consider what it will do to your relationship with your parents when they find out you lied to them - over money. Over the years I've seen lots of long-term family conflicts arise over money issues.

**deadlock** · 11-30-2006, 07:08 AM

Quoting lee927

I live in California and my fiancé is in the army. We want to get married when he comes home for Christmas, both because we don't want to wait any longer to be married and because one of the main reasons he enlisted is to save up money and he would make a lot. Is there any way we can keep my parents finding out? They love him, but they'd rather we wait until I graduate from college. They are paying for my school and claim me as a dependent. I don't know if my fiancé would need to claim me as a dependent in order to receive the extra salary. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Lee, you may prefer to look up your questions on this site:
http://www.irs.gov/
Topic 354 is about claiming dependants and how your parents may choose to claim your status on their return.

Both you and your fiance might want to look up answers before you decide to marry based on his income and your parents loss of a dependant status.

**lee927** · 11-30-2006, 10:33 AM

I am 19 and he is 20. We've been together for 3 1/2 years and I will graduate college in Spring 2009. We wouldn't get married until January. I'm not going to commit fraud. I'm trying to figure out it is possible for my parents to still claim me rather than him claiming me. I know that it isn't legal for them both to claim me. Thank you deadlock, for your link to the irs site. I will try to find the information I need there. My parents would not stop paying for my college if they found out about the marriage, so that isn't what this is about.

**Ceritus** · 01-25-2007, 04:20 AM

My wife and I got married in a courthouse, been married for a year come Jan 27th, I am in the airforce.

I can tell you that when you get married and sign up in the DEERS program and get show your marriage certificate to the finance office your spouse the military member will recieve BAH and be able to move off base if he has not done so already. You will also have the choice if the base has opening ofcourse to move into base housing. When tax season comes it gets very iffy, normally you would file a joint return and therefore cannot be claimed as a dependant by your parents.

However, When my wife and I got married both of our families weren't entirely for it because it was a rash decision (which we had no idea that it was at the time) however it has worked out well for us so far which means we got lucky. She basically moved down to oklahoma with me and we applied for the marriage license got it the same day then scheduled to be married by the judge 3 days later.

The best advice I could give you is that sit down and really think about what you want and discuss this with your soon to be spouse as well. When you become married your parents normally become 2nd in importance. You do not have to please anyone but yourself in the end but make sure what you decide really does please you by considering all the possible consequences.