Just recently got married, was going to file jointly, but when I had his w2 in, says he owes money. How can I go about of getting my share back

[scottamber12]

If we filed separate, it shows he owes for federal but I don’t. I am claiming our 3 kids, trying to see how I can get my share of the refund

[xmasbaby0]

If you were legally married at the end of 2025 your filing choices are married filing jointly or married filing separately when you prepare your 2025 return.

Married Filing Jointly is usually better, even if one spouse had little or no income. When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $31,500 (+ $1600 for each spouse 65 or older)  for 2025. You are eligible for more credits including education credits, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and a larger income limit to receive the child tax credit. 

If you choose to file married filing separately, both spouses have to file the same way—either you both itemize or you both use standard deduction. Your tax rate will be higher than on a joint return.

 Some of the disadvantages of filing separately include: 

You cannot get earned income credit, 

You cannot get education credits or deductions for student loan interest. 

You cannot get the childcare credit

You have a lower amount of income on which to base the refundable additional child tax credit

85% of your Social Security benefits will be taxable even with no other income 

The amount you can contribute to a retirement account will be limited.

Capital loss deduction is less than if you file jointly

You cannot get the $6000 senior deduction

You cannot get the deductions for overtime or tips

 If you live in a community property state, you will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s income. ( Community property states:  AZ, CA, ID, LA, NV, NM, TX, WA, WI) and your returns become very complicated.

 If  you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice since with online, you get one return per fee.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/should-you-and-your-spouse-file-taxes-jointly-or-separ...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/income/getting-married-mean-taxes/L2Rgma...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/married-filing-separately-commu...

[CesarJ]

There's no way to see how each spouse's taxes are calculated in TurboTax Online (TTO). However, if you want to see what each spouse's taxes look like individually, you can open two separate accounts in TTO and prepare each spouse's return using Married Filing Separatly. This lets you to compare how much each owes or is due on your own.

You may also want to consider TurbotTax Desktop because you can do this comparison only needing to check one return. You can do this by following the steps in this article.

1. Open your return and select Forms.
2. Select Open Form, enter What-If Worksheet (it may appear as What-If Wks), and select Open Form.
3. Select the MFJ vs. MFS box.
4. Scroll down to Balance Due (Refund) located under Line 72.
5. The second column shows the federal outcome for a joint return, and the third and fourth columns show the outcome for the taxpayer and spouse if filing separately.
   • Negative numbers are refunds and positive numbers are taxes due.

(Edited FEB. 2, 2026 at 10:33 am PST)

@scottamber12