This is my first time filing married jointly and I want to know how it works do both of us do our taxes separately and put filing jointly or does one person do them?

[ErnieS0]

If you are filing together, then all your income will be on one income tax return. In some places, TurboTax will ask whom the income belongs to — Taxpayer or Spouse. It’s important to list the right owner of the income.  Otherwise, TurboTax can make a wrong calculation.

Sometimes you will find that you owe taxes when filing together instead of getting two refunds because you are combining your income, which sometimes gives you a higher tax rate than if you filed as two single persons.

However, you can’t file single if you are married and married filing separately is usually worse than filing together because some credits and deductions are disallowed or limited under married filing separately that are allowed with a joint filing.

[MarilynG1]

If you're using TurboTax Online and you both had accounts, one of you can use their account and update the info in the MY INFO section to add your spouse.  That way you don't have to start from scratch, as one person's data from last year will be there.

When you Efile, enter each of your AGI's from last year where requested.

Don't forget you may want to adjust your W-4's with your employers, if you haven't done so. 

[xmasbaby0]

How to start a new joint return

When you enter your own information in My Info, you have to answer the question "Were you married?"  If you click the button for Married, then a drop down will appear that asks, "Do you want to file this return together with your spouse?"  Then you choose yes to file a joint return.  You would then enter your spouse's information into Personal Info.  Whenever you are entering income information there should then be a spot for you and for your spouse's income information.

When you prepare a joint return you include all the information for both spouses on the SAME tax return.  Include all of your personal information, all of your income from every source, all dependents (if any), all credits and deductions for both of you.  You get ONE refund with both names on it.