Originally Posted by
FDXer
Tax tables for filing single are significantly higher than filing jointly. I ran the numbers both ways and I find filing jointly works best for me. One of the problems is dividing up the deductions properly so the person in the higher bracket can get a tax break. One might also be subject to AMT sooner when filing taxes as a single. A married couple can do it either way and it only takes a couple of minutes to run some prelim numbers using the single tax tables for both.
I may be misreading your post so I apologize in advance if I am. If you are married you cannot "file either way" as you say in your last sentence. I think you are saying you can either file married (jointly) or file single (for both). You cannot do that. You must either file married jointly or married separately.
I did that once "accidentally" of course--- and the IRS wasn't too pleased. They sent me a nice little letter along with a computation for penalties and interest!!!!
Like I said, I apologize if I read your post wrong---but I put this response on here with my story just in case anyone on here reads it as I did and thinks about "trying" it. It can significantly reduce your taxes (if the IRS doesn't catch it!!)