VolvoGirl gives a good overview of the married filing jointly / married filing separately question.
To discover which filing status is better for your situation, prepare two married filing separate tax returns and compare them to a married filing joint calculation. The TurboTax Desktop product would be helpful for this calculation.
Unlike TurboTax Online, the TurboTax Desktop product allows you to prepare multiple tax returns and electronically file up to five tax returns. Desktop also allows you to save multiple versions of tax returns and compare the results of the tax returns.
Having sat across the desk from couples with tax debt issues, I focus on the advantage of filing separately to shield the "other" spouse from those tax debt issues. I have recommended married filing separately to protect one spouse from the issues of the other spouse.
This TurboTax Help also addresses the topic.
TurboTax provides a free W-4 utility here. It generates the numbers to enter on your employers W-4. See also this TurboTax Help.
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