In this public forum we do not have access to your tax return or TurboTax account. One possibility that might explain this is unemployment. If you and your spouse drew unemployment, and your combined income is $150,000 or greater, then by the provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act the unemployment compensation will be fully included in taxable income. However, when you file separately, your incomes could well be under the threshold and therefore be excluded on your individual returns. If this is the case and you have somewhat similar income amounts, you may have a rare case where filing separately produces a better tax result than filing jointly.
And another tax trick is to make sure that your two dependents are claimed by the spouse with lower income, to maximize the stimulus payments that were issued. Even if the amounts were issued to the maximum allowable (not phased down), as a joint filing each of you is considered to have received 50% of the stimulus. Now when you file separately, the spouse with the dependents would be entitled to receive more because of the math. So if filing separately this year has a tax advantage, file that way. It's rare, but it does happen.
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