[giantg2]

"Some major tax deductions like the mortgage deduction are per person as well"

This doesn't sound right.

"so the overall rate is higher for one person then two splitting."

That depends if that one person is the higher or lower earner. This statement really only works if you have two unequal salaries. Since it's progressive, you're only paying the higher taxes on the amount that is over the threshold.

[s1artibartfast]

>This doesn't sound right

I don't know what to tell you. The code is pretty straightforward. You can deduct the mortgage interest on 375 k per person. You get twice the tax deduction with two people as one.

Regarding the general taxes you are correct in that it only helps if you have two people in different tax brackets. This is extremely common

[giantg2]

So that's rely only applicable if your house is over $375k. It's not like if you pay $5k in interest that you deduct $10k.

[s1artibartfast]

Correct. My mortgage is 750k+. single, I get a 15k tax deduction. If I marry someone, we get 30k tax deduction instead.