Most married taxpayers automatically tend to choose the Married Filing Jointly filing status, because they enjoy being taxed at the lowest rate, and also because there are certain tax breaks they might not be entitled to if they were to file separate returns. This, however, might not always be a wise decision.

If you and your spouse each have income, it might be wise to figure your taxes both on a joint return and on separate returns, and then choose the filing status that gives you the lower combined tax. Generally, you will pay more combined tax on separate returns than you would on a joint return, because the tax rate is higher for the MFS filing status. However, if both you and your spouse are high earners; and both of you also have large deductions, there may be a possibility that filing MFS could result in a lower tax bill, as separating the incomes will invariable place you both in a lower tax bracket.

Another scenario to look at is if your spouse dies during the year and has a tax liability, for example, because there was not enough tax withheld for his or her salary; in this case you might want to consider filing MFS. If you file MFJ you will be responsible for the entire tax.

The primary objective of this article is to empower taxpayers to learn to do their own taxes, so for more information on choosing the appropriate filing status, grab yourself a copy of “Doing Your Own Taxes is as Easy as 1, 2, 3” ($6.98) on TaxConnections.com.