MOVING TO MARRIED FILING SEPARATELY FROM MARRIED FILING JOINTLY

[APRAD0929]

Hi Experts.

Another question please. It looks like that the combined salary of me and my wife kind of killed our refunds and ended up owing too much to to FED TAX because of the bracket.

Question now, since we've been filing Married filing jointly like forever, can We change now to Married filing separately? Will IRS allow this? 

Thanks in advance.

[DoninGA]

When you are legally married you can file either as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing separately.  It is your choice and can be changed from one tax year to the next.  It is not an issue with the IRS>

[APRAD0929]

Thanks for the answer!

[Opus 17]

It is unlikely you will actual lower your taxes by filing MFS.  The tax brackets are less favorable and some deductions and credits are reduced or disallowed.  You can certainly test it out both ways.  (For a few years, my wife and I filed MFS, which cost us an extra $500 in federal taxes but saved $1000 in state taxes, because the state and federal deductions and brackets were so different.). Remember that if one spouse uses itemized deductions, both spouses must itemize, even if they have nothing to deduct.  It is not allowed to load all the deductions on one spouse so the other spouse can take the standard deduction. 

[APRAD0929]

Thanks for the tip. 

Wife and I always on MFJ, it just started last year that all of a sudden we paid $7K in FED TAX out of nowhere. Both TT & HR were showing the same but I ended up using TT which I always use. 2022 ITR was weird coz my wife only has $5K increase in salary. Previous year(2021) we only owe FED TAX of $860. 2022 we owe $6K in Fed tax and 2023 we owe them $7K and its crazy stupid coz I somehow know that the FEDS are increasing percentage of Fed Taxes every year not to mention the MFJ bracket is getting hit too much too.