I will also start collecting Social Security for myself and 6 year old son. Should I stay Married Filing Jointly or change to Married Filing Separately? Thank you kindly.
generally married filing jointly will produce the lowest tax even when there's a disparity in income. the tax is figured like each of you earned 1/2 the combined taxable income. for example, if married filing separately, all income was ordinary, and you had $25k in taxable income and she had $75K the combined federal taxes would be about $14,900. filling jointly the taxes would be about $13,200 (twice the tax on $50K each if single). then with MFS there are certain tax credits that will be lost, such as the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the earned income credit, the adoption credit, education credits and the deduction for student loan interest. Also, if one itemizes both must itemize, or if one uses the standard deduction both must use it. However, there can be circumstances where MFS can be beneficial. here's a link to a Turbotax thread on when MFS can save taxes
@nypdfinest911 - your only options are Married - Filing Joint and Married - Filing Separate.
96% of married couples filing JOINT because the tax laws motivate that behavior. (To me. that remaining 4% can't agree to both sign the tax return or are naive to how this works)
It is quite, quite unlikely that filing Separate is going to yield a better outcome. for example, since you state you are on social security, assuming you are living with your spouse, 85% of your social security is AUTOMATICALLY taxable.
Q. Should I change to Married Filing Separately (MFS)?
A. Simple answer: No. Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) is ALMOST always better. But the only way to be sure is prepare returns both ways and compare. That is more easily done with TurboTax (TT) download software than with the online versions.
This tool may be helpful https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/?s=1.
You mentioned starting social security. A common error is believing that filing MFS will keep your SS from being taxed. As @NCperson points out, the tax code specifically prevents that, by dropping the income threshold (for bring taxed) to $0 for those filing MFS.