Married Filing Separately: How It Works, When to Do It

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What is married filing separately?
- Federal: $79 to $139. Free version available for Simple Form 1040 returns only.
- State: $0 to $69 per state.
- Expert help or full service filing is available with an upgrade to Live packages for a fee.
How married filing separately works
Married filing separately: Standard deduction
- For 2025 returns filed in 2026, the standard deduction for those married filing separately is $15,750, whereas the standard deduction for joint returns is double: $31,500.
Married filing separately rules
Advantages of filing separately vs. jointly
Student loans
- If you’re enrolled in an income-based student loan repayment plan, filing separately could reduce your monthly bill. Some income-based repayment programs key off of adjusted gross income (AGI).
- If you choose the married filing separately status, your payments may be based only on the borrower’s income rather than on your joint income as a couple. That’s a big consideration that makes it worth the time to calculate your taxes both jointly and separately. It could be worth filing separately and paying an extra $500 in April, for example, if you’re going to save $200 per month in student loan payments.
- However, keep in mind that you won't be able to take several education tax credits, such as the student loan interest deduction or lifetime learning credit if you use this filing status.
Medical expenses
- Generally, you can deduct unreimbursed medical expenses — but only the portion that exceeds 7.5% of your AGI. Filing separately could make more of those expenses deductible.
- Here’s an example. Let’s say you and your spouse are both 30, and one of you had up to $6,000 in unreimbursed medical bills last year. If you file jointly and your combined AGI is, say, $100,000, then only the portion of your medical bills over 7.5% of that — or the portion over $7,500 — is deductible. So in this scenario, you can’t deduct a penny of your $6,000 in medical bills because you filed jointly.
- Now let’s say you file separately. Your AGI is, say, $55,000 and your spouse’s AGI is $45,000. Now the math may work in your favor, because anything more than $4,125 (that’s 7.5% of your AGI) is deductible. If you were the one with the medical bills, filing separately just got you a $1,875 deduction. Alternatively, if the medical bills belong to your spouse, they could deduct anything over 7.5% of that $45,000 AGI, or $3,375. That would mean a $2,625 tax deduction when filing separately.
- Federal: $79 to $139. Free version available for Simple Form 1040 returns only.
- State: $0 to $69 per state.
- Expert help or full service filing is available with an upgrade to Live packages for a fee.
Complicated spouses
- If your spouse brought overdue taxes into the relationship, it may be worth choosing the married filing separately status. That way, the IRS may not take your refund away and apply it to your spouse’s overdue bill.
- Remember, however, that filing separately usually results in a higher overall tax bill for both of you. So, if the goal is to keep your tax bills low, you can consider giving up the refund to get that liability out of your hair.
- If you’re getting a divorce or you suspect your spouse isn’t being upfront about tax matters, you should think about filing separately, too. After all, once you sign that joint return, you have joint liability. You may be able to get innocent spouse relief from the IRS if things explode, but convincing the IRS that you’re innocent isn’t easy.
The bottom line
Article sources
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