File married separate this year to get third stimulus balance for spouse

[Paul_D1]

My wife and I always file jointly and last year (2021) and made over the cutoff for the third stimulus, so we only received a very reduced amount.  I want to file married separately as my wife makes under the single cutoff of 75k so she can receive the balance of her $1400.  I know that my half ($356) that we received last year I would not have gotten on my own as I make over the cutoff for any payment at all.  Should I not do this?  There aren't any other deductions that we claim.

[DavidD66]

If you file separately and don't qualify for the stimulus payment you already received, you will not have to pay it back.  You should realize that (stimulus payments aside) you almost always pay more in tax when you are married and file separately than if you file jointly.  I recommend you calculate your taxes both ways (MFJ and MFS) before you file.  This is much easier to do using TurboTax Desktop.  For more information on the CD/download version of TurboTax go to:

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