Why would married people living together file seperate income tax returns? What are the advantages?
Married Filing Jointly or filing separately? A huge disadvantage to filing Married Filing Separately is that the taxpayers are eligible for NONE of the credits, including the adoption credit and earned income credit. And only for one-half of the Child Tax Credit. The reason is Congress “baits” married taxpayers. If one spouse flees the country, the IRS can get the other spouse. However, it’s sometimes a good idea to file married separately. E.g, spouse suspects spouse of not reporting all the income to the Treasury or inflating deductions. If one of you made a large income and the other a small income, you should input in to the soft ware Married Filing Separately as well as Married Filing Jointly. You should do it both ways to see which is better for your family. There is the possibility that you would have a lower Federal income tax liability this way. A good example is if both of you pay the mortgage, made a lot of allowable charitable contributions, have a lot of employee business
