@thullermann1 , with the situation as described in your post,
(a) Your joint world income is high and therefore push you into a high marginal tax rate
(b) Because you have owned this rental property ( as income property ) for almost 2/3 of its depreciatiable life, a large portion of any gain would be taxed as ordinary income i.e. at your joint marginal tax rate. For example if you had bought the property at $100,000 and the depreciable basis was $75,000 ( i.e. land cost was 25,000 ) your accumulated depreciation in 2023 would be around $60,000. This means $60,000 of the gain would be taxed as ordinary gain. In such a case filing as Married filing Separate and claiming the property ONLY belonging to you ( i.e. it is not marital property if the state allows it ), you may be able to reduce your tax bite because of lower marginal tax rate for yourself alone. But you have to make sure that this is done because the property really belongs only to you and that you are not doing just to evade legitimate tax levy.
(c) other way to r delay tax reconning is to exchange this property for a higher value property using 1031 exchange mechanism. It does not make the tax go away just delays recognition of the tax. What you are trying to do here is to delay an outright disposition and recognition of taxes till one of you passes when the property would be eligible for step-up of basis to FMV ( the extent depends on the state law ) and benefit of the inheritors.
I would suggest that you consult these topics with a tax professional.
Is there more I can do for you ?
pk
