Yeah we know - but the swing is my wife is using the public service loan forgiveness program which forgives student loans (of which she has a lot) and in income based repayment if you file separately they use only your income. Since my income is significantly higher the amount her loan payments would go up would more than offset the other benefits we would get out of it (Student loan interest, higher AMT cap, etc). I've run the numbers and it nets out better this way by a good bit (would be a bump up about 600/month in payments - plus we'd have to switch to the standard repayment plan which basically negates the benefits of the PSLF program . If she moves to a private sector job it will definitely make sense to file jointly. It is a complicated question though as it depends highly on whether we think she'll make it the 10 years to get the forgiveness and what that's really worth looking back on the whole thing...we don't have children or any other deductions though other than state/local taxes (and possibly a mortgage soon). We are not in a community property state.
