ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996              TAG: 9611120132
SECTION: MONEY                    PAGE: 6    EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: MONEY MATTERS
SOURCE: MAG POFF

NEWLYWEDS: FILE JOINTLY OR SEPARATELY AT TAX TIME

Q: I was married Oct. 12. When my husband and I file for 1996 taxes, will we have to file as married even though we were single most of the year? Or is there any way we can file partial single and partial married?

A: There is no status under the tax law for being partially married. If you were married during the year, you are considered a married couple at tax time.

Charles Equi, a certified public accountant with the Roanoke firm of Budd, Ammen & Co., said you will have two options when you and your new husband file 1996 tax returns next year. You can choose between married and filing jointly or married and filing separately. You can take the course that is most favorable to you.

If you choose to file separately, Equi said, you must both either itemize deductions or claim the standard deduction. One cannot itemize and the other take the standard deduction.

You were obviously thinking about the well-publicized ``marriage penalty'' when you asked the question. That means that a married couple usually pays more in taxes than would two single people in identical situations.

But Equi said not all couples face a marriage penalty; it depends on the tax circumstances of each couple. Some couples, in fact, pay less in taxes than they would pay as singles.

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