Quote:
Originally Posted by PersonOfInterest
Married filing separately and living together will not produce less overall tax unless there is an unusual situation or the return is done incorrectly. You'd have to both be itemizing deductions or both be standard deduction. That alone makes it difficult to have a scenario where the total tax paid is less. What unusual situation do you have that would tip the scales? Or who are you getting to incorrectly file your returns?
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Although true that filing jointly pays less tax than two married filing separately combined tax payments, but there are reasons to file jointly.
The tax planning
strategy of looking at future year implications of tax status now, would include future IRMMA penalties for one or both filing separately. . Remember that the biggest IRMMA penalty arises from filing jointly and then filing single with the loopback period.
So couples where future changes in tax status might want to consider filing separately to avoid IRMMA in future years. . .
remember,
strategy is not about today, strategy is about the future events that may have adverse impacts if today is not done optimally.