Can a married couple filing separately use the same turbotax account?

[xmasbaby0]

You need two separate accounts.  

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 each receive the $4050 personal exemption, plus the married filing jointly standard deduction of $12,600 (add $1250 for each spouse over the age of 65).  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 special rules for filing separately include: you cannot get earned income credit, education credits, or deductions for student loan interest. A higher percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxable.  In many cases you will not be able to take the child and dependent care credit.  If you live in a community property state, you will be required to provide additional information regarding your spouse’s income.  If you are using online TurboTax to prepare your returns, you will need to prepare two separate returns and pay twice.

[Davidendum]

Do I need to pay double if I'm filling jointly? for me and for my wife?

Or can a single fee cover the both of us filing jointly?

[VolvoGirl]

A Joint return is one return combined for the both of you.  You only need 1 account and pay for 1 return.

[navamanas]

"...you and your spouse will each receive the $4050 personal exemption, plus the married filing jointly standard deduction of $12,600 (add $1250 for each spouse over the age of 65)."

Oh yeah? Who made those numbers up? My wife and I got none of that.

[xmasbaby0]

@navamanas No, and you will not get that----you posted to a thread from several years ago before the tax laws changed.   When the tax laws changed for 2018 and beyond personal exemptions were eliminated.

When the old user forum called Answer Xchange was migrated over to Real Money Talk, in 2019 some old threads came over with 2019 dates on them---and many of them are much older.  This is an old one.

Here is what you get when you file a joint return for 2020:

When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $24,800 (+$1300 for each spouse 65 or older)  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. 

[VolvoGirl]

This is a new forum layout. Some posts that have June 2019 dates are really older posts from the old forum that got moved over. So they might be for prior years and not current info. When they migrated over the dates got changed to June 2019. And the screen shots got deleted. 

There is no more personal exemptions and the Standard Deduction has been increased to double.

For 2020 the standard deduction amounts are:

Single 12,400 + 1,650 for 65 and over or blind (14,050)

HOH 18,650 + 1,650 for 65 and over or blind

Joint 24,800 + 1,300 for each 65 and over or blind

Married filing Separate 12,400 + 1,300 for 65 and over or blind