Married filing

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I make significantly more than my husband. If he will be filing my children as his dependents on his tax return, should we file separately? Or could we file jointly and still receive the maximum benefits?

PaulD CPA

Alumni - Intuit

Hi Wturner,

It's exceptionally rare for the Married Filing Separately (MFS) filing status to produce tax savings over Married Filing Jointly (MFJ). The only way to know for sure is to prepare the tax returns using both filing statuses and compare the result. If you're up for doing that, here's a link to an article that explains how to use TurboTax Desktop (the version installed on a Windows PC or a Mac) to do this: How can we compare married filing jointly with married filing separately?

Note: That article doesn't address state returns, which complicates things the analysis a little more because some states require spouses to use the same filing status as was used for the federal return, and some states allow the filing status to differ. Refer to your state's tax return instructions to find out whether they allow married people to choose a different Filing Status than was used on their federal tax return(s). You can find your state's website here: Select your state for info about their filing requirements

If the state allows it, here's a link to instructions for getting that done using TurboTax Desktop:
How can we compare married filing jointly with married filing separately?

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