Is filing married joint always better than filing separate for tax purposes?
Hey tax folks, I'm getting really confused about whether to file jointly with my spouse or separately this year. We've always filed jointly in the past, but our financial situation has changed quite a bit. I got a promotion with a significant salary increase (about $28,000 more than last year), and my wife started her own small business which hasn't been profitable yet (about $9,500 in losses). We also have some medical expenses that were about 9% of our income. Someone told me that filing separately might actually save us money this year, but everything I read online seems to suggest joint filing is always better. Is there ever a case where married filing separately actually saves you money? Any help would be super appreciated as I'm trying to get everything organized before the deadline!
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Sean Flanagan
Filing jointly isn't always better, despite what many people assume. There are specific situations where filing separately can actually save you money. In your case, there are a few factors to consider. With your wife's business losses, filing jointly would allow those losses to offset your higher income, which is generally favorable. However, medical expenses are only deductible if they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. If most of those expenses were for one spouse, filing separately might allow that spouse to exceed the threshold more easily. Other situations where separate filing can be beneficial: if one spouse has significant income-based student loan payments, if there's a risk of tax liability due to an error on one spouse's return, or if one spouse has substantial miscellaneous itemized deductions. The downside is you'll lose several tax benefits when filing separately, including some education credits, child care credits, and typically a higher effective tax rate.
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Zara Shah
•Thanks for this info! So if one of us has way more medical expenses than the other, it might make sense to file separately? What about if I'm on an income-based repayment plan for my student loans - would filing separately keep my payments lower since they wouldn't count my spouse's income?
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Sean Flanagan
•If one spouse has significantly more medical expenses, filing separately could help them exceed the 7.5% AGI threshold more easily, potentially making more of those expenses deductible. For income-based student loan repayments, filing separately can indeed keep your payments lower in many cases because your spouse's income wouldn't be considered in the calculation. However, you need to run the numbers carefully because what you save in loan payments might be offset by a higher tax bill from losing other benefits of joint filing such as certain credits and potentially being pushed into higher tax brackets.
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NebulaNomad
Just wanted to share my experience - I was in a similar situation last year and found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out whether to file jointly or separately. I uploaded our financial docs and it ran the calculations both ways and showed exactly how much we'd pay in each scenario. The difference was shocking! In our case, filing separately saved us over $3,200 because of my wife's income-based student loan payments and some medical deductions we had.
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Luca Ferrari
•Does it actually compare both filing statuses automatically? I've used other tax software and they make you manually prepare two separate returns to see the difference, which is super time consuming.
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Nia Wilson
•I'm always skeptical of these tax tools. How does it handle state returns? In some states you have to use the same filing status as your federal return, so that's another consideration.
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NebulaNomad
•It does compare both filing statuses automatically! That's what impressed me the most - it saved me hours of manually entering everything twice. It shows side-by-side comparisons and breaks down exactly where the differences come from. Regarding state returns, it handles those too and flags if your state requires the same filing status as federal. It actually points out those restrictions and factors them into the overall recommendation. In my case, we live in a state where you can choose different statuses, which contributed to our savings.
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Luca Ferrari
Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai - I decided to try it out after seeing the recommendation here. Really glad I did! My husband and I were convinced joint filing was always better until we ran our numbers. Turns out we could save about $1,850 by filing separately because of my student loan situation. The tool clearly showed how my income-based repayment would increase by $290/month if we filed jointly, which would cost way more over the year than the tax savings from joint filing. So thanks for that recommendation - definitely worth checking out if you're on the fence about filing status!
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Mateo Martinez
If you're struggling with figuring out the best filing status and want to talk to an actual IRS agent about your specific situation, try using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about a similar married filing question last year when I had some complicated deductions to sort out. After hanging up in frustration multiple times, I found Claimyr and they got me connected to an IRS rep in about 20 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent walked me through the exact specifications for my situation and saved me from making a costly mistake.
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Aisha Hussain
•Wait, how does this actually work? Does it just call the IRS for you? I'm confused about what service they're providing that I couldn't do myself.
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Nia Wilson
•This sounds too good to be true. I've tried calling the IRS multiple times and always get the "due to high call volume" message. Are you saying this service somehow jumps the queue? I find that hard to believe.
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Mateo Martinez
•It doesn't just call the IRS for you - their system navigates the IRS phone tree and stays on hold in your place. Once a human IRS agent answers, you get a call connecting you directly to that agent. So you don't have to waste hours listening to hold music. And yes, it absolutely works! I was skeptical too, but it's not about "jumping the queue" - they're just handling the wait time for you. Their system keeps trying and stays on hold so you don't have to. My call was connected in 20 minutes, but timing varies depending on IRS call volume. Either way, you're only paying for the successful connection, not the wait time.
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Nia Wilson
Ok I need to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway because I was desperate to get some questions answered about filing separately with rental property income. I was SHOCKED when I got a call back connecting me to an actual IRS agent after about 35 minutes (during peak filing season!). The agent was super helpful and cleared up my confusion about how to handle the passive activity losses when filing separately. Saved me a ton of stress and probably some money too. Can't believe I wasted so many hours trying to call them directly in the past!
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Ethan Clark
Another thing to consider when deciding between joint and separate filing is the potential "marriage penalty" in certain tax brackets. If you and your spouse both have similar high incomes, you might end up paying more filing jointly than you would have as single filers. It's not as bad as it used to be with the 2017 tax law changes, but it can still happen at higher income levels.
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StarStrider
•Could you explain more about what income levels this happens at? My wife and I both make around $90k each and I'm wondering if we're affected.
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Ethan Clark
•The marriage penalty is most noticeable when both spouses have similar high incomes, typically in the higher tax brackets. At around $90k each, you're probably not seeing a significant penalty. The current tax brackets have mostly eliminated the marriage penalty for most income levels, but it can still exist when you get to the 37% bracket (over $693,750 for married filing jointly in 2025 vs. $578,125 for single filers). There are also marriage penalties that can occur with certain deductions and credits that phase out, like the Net Investment Income Tax threshold or the limitation on state and local tax deductions. For most couples at the $90k each level, joint filing is usually still better due to other benefits.
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Yuki Sato
Has anyone used TurboTax to compare filing separately vs jointly? Does it let you try both ways without having to pay twice?
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Carmen Ruiz
•Yes, TurboTax does have a feature that compares the two filing statuses! When you get to the part where you select your filing status, there's an option called "Help me choose" that will run the numbers both ways. But you need to have entered all your info first for it to be accurate. I used it last year and it was really helpful.
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