When I switch from “Married filing jointly” to “Married filing separately”, my refund increases significantly. Is this legitimate? Our salaries are similar, and no kids.

[jgheyman]

We both have relatively high incomes that are roughly equivalent. We have no children. We own our home and pay mortgage interest. After entering everything, when I switch TurboTax from filing jointly to filing separately, it shows a significant increase in both Federal and DC refunds. However, TurboTax is suggesting that I file jointly. Am I missing something?

[IreneS]

It certainly could be that filing separately would be more beneficial than filing jointly.   Your individual taxable income would be less than combined income and the tax rate might be less.

The best way to find out if you should file jointly or separately with your spouse is to prepare the tax return both ways. Double check your calculations and then look at the net refund or balance due from each method.

Keep in mind that when filing separately you both have to treat deductions the same way--if one of you itemizes deduction, you both have to.

Since you have the CD/Download version of TurboTax, you can create 3 returns:

• joint return;
• married filing separately for you;
• married filing separately for your spouse.

You can create the separate returns by making copies of the joint return [File > Save As] and then deleting the spouse's income/deductions.