I'm been filing married jointly for couples of years and no matter how much I withheld in my tax without exempt for my kids, I still have to thousands of tax by the end of the year. It doesn't make sense. I realized my salary is way less than my husband, so I tried file my tax separately on Turbo tax. My tax due immediately dropped a lot! But form 8889-s gave me error: for Line 3 Smart worksheet, it keeps giving me the error about "Self only" and "Family". All of family is under family HDHP which I purchased through employer. I don't understand what I should do with this Line 3 Smart Worksheet now. can't pass this error no matter what I put in.
on the separate return make sure married filing separate is the filing status. you can use single and there are certain tests you must pass to use Head of Household.
with the lower income your taxes will drop a lot but when he goes to file his return his taxes will likely increase a lot. probably more than your decrease. also both of you must use the same method for deductions either standard or itemized. in addition, if you are both qualified to claim any children, the rules state that only he can because he would apparently have the highest AGI
what amount is showing up as code w on your w-2
checking family for the entire year is correct since that's what you had.
if you are doing a married filing separate return, you must use form 8889-T not the S.
you cannot use a joint return to do married filing separately.
you would need to create a new account and start a MFS return.