Is there a rule of thumb?

I am married with two small children. I may have missed this in one of my basic finance courses in college, but is there a general rule of thumb for either filing jointly, or filing seperately. Both my Wife and I work...and I use Turbotax to file.

In most cases, you will be better off filining jointly, particularly if you deduct child care expenses or one spouse earns significantly more than the other. In some cases, married couples with large medical expenses can save money on taxes by filing separately. Normally, only those medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of your AGI are deductible. That's a tough rule to meet. But if all the medical expenses are assigned to one spouse, it is sometimes possible to qualify for a medical expense deduction. The same strategy applies to casualty losses or employee business expenses that are subject to limits in excess of a percentage of AGI.

Mary Beth Franklin
Associate Editor
Kiplinger's Personal Finance