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Captain Nemo · 01-06-2005, 01:51 PM

Alien, filing "married filing separately" will not help you if you and your wife are in approximately the same income level. If you look at the rate structure, they effectively took the various tiered income levels and cut them in half for the Married Filing Separately table.

For example, at 140,000K of taxable income you would pay $29,158 in income taxes using the married filing joint table (140,000 - 117,250 = 22,750*28% = 6,370 + 22,788 = 29,158).

If you were to calc. your liabilities separately you would owe $29,380 (70,000 - 57325 = 12,675 * .28 = 3,549 + 11,141 = 14,690 * 2 = 29,380)

If you were both single, you'd be paying $28,692 in taxes using the single tables, so you are paying approximately $466 more in taxes using the married tables.

Just a rough approximation, as I didn't factor in itemized/standard deduction and personal exemptions. Also, married filing separately is used, for example, when one spouse has income greatly in excess of the other

01-06-2005, 01:51 PM	#151 (permalink)
Captain Nemo Insane Location: In a forest of red tape (but hey, I have scissors)	Alien, filing "married filing separately" will not help you if you and your wife are in approximately the same income level. If you look at the rate structure, they effectively took the various tiered income levels and cut them in half for the Married Filing Separately table. For example, at 140,000K of taxable income you would pay $29,158 in income taxes using the married filing joint table (140,000 - 117,250 = 22,75028% = 6,370 + 22,788 = 29,158). If you were to calc. your liabilities separately you would owe $29,380 (70,000 - 57325 = 12,675 .28 = 3,549 + 11,141 = 14,690 * 2 = 29,380) If you were both single, you'd be paying $28,692 in taxes using the single tables, so you are paying approximately $466 more in taxes using the married tables. Just a rough approximation, as I didn't factor in itemized/standard deduction and personal exemptions. Also, married filing separately is used, for example, when one spouse has income greatly in excess of the other Last edited by Captain Nemo; 01-07-2005 at 05:44 AM..