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TeignmouthElectron t1_jae3olb wrote

Reply to comment by SpiritualCatch6757 in Married in June of 2022: Do I file taxes as a single person or joint with my wife? by Existing_Ad_5591

That’s not true. Married filing separately you get the exact same tax credits just divided by two. Things like tax credits for dependents, you need to choose on who’s tax return it makes the most sense to put it on.

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123456478965413846 t1_jaebc2x wrote

There are differences in certain situations.

If you file separately there are a few credits you cannot claim like the earned income tax credit, child and dependent care credit, and some education related credits. So if you would get those credits filing jointly is generally better than separately.

Also to claim medical expenses you need them to be more than 7.5% of agi. If one person has a bunch of medical expenses it might be more than 7.5% of their agi but not of the joint AGI. In that situation jointly might be better.

There are a ton of edge cases where one or the other is better. In most cases it should be the same or very close to the same, but sometimes there are large differences.

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peteb82 t1_jaebn8o wrote

MFS will phase you out of several things completely. Notably Roth IRA income limits are very harsh for MFS. It is almost never a better option.

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TeignmouthElectron t1_jaemqxr wrote

That one is particularly fucked up! What else does it phase you out of? I’ve reviewed for my personal case and found absolutely no difference. We both have small businesses as LLCs so it is cleaner to file separately, and had no loss in tax implications.

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