My husband and I live in TX, which is a community property state, and do MFS. We fill out form 8958, which shows how we combine and split 50/50 our wages, and combine and split 50/50 our federal withholding. We've done this every year. So our respective 1040s effectively each show half of our combined wages, and half of our combined federal withholding. My husband has $0 in wages and $0 (obviously) in federal withholding in 2022, because he retired in 2021. Do we still have to combine/split what is now only my wages? So for example, if I made $100K in wages in 2022, and had $20K withheld... then $50K in wages goes on each 1040, and $10K in federal withholding goes on each 1040? is that correct? This puts us in a lower tax bracket than if I put all of my $100K/$20K on just my 1040, and my husband puts $0 in wages on his 1040. Assuming we both take the standard deduction, then if 100% of my $100K/$20K goes on my taxes, my max tax bracket would be 22% and I owe money to the IRS. But if $50K/$10K goes on each of our 1040's, then our max tax bracket is 12% and we each get refunds. Is it correct that combining/splitting my wages results in better tax treatment? Note, I am deliberately excluding interest/dividends/cap gains...and assuming that ALL we have is my $100K salary, and no other sources of income. Thanks.
