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

Taxpayers with student loans, big medical bills or complicated situations can consider the married filing separately filing status.

Tina Orem
Assistant Assigning Editor | Taxes, small business, Social Security and estate planning, home services

Tina Orem is an editor at NerdWallet. Prior to becoming an editor, she covered small business and taxes at NerdWallet. She has been a financial writer and editor for over 15 years, and she has a degree in finance, as well as a master's degree in journalism and a Master of Business Administration. Previously, she was a financial analyst and director of finance for several public and private companies. Tina's work has appeared in a variety of local and national media outlets.

Chris Hutchison helped build NerdWallet's content operation and has worked across banking, investing and taxes. He now leads a team exploring new markets. Before joining NerdWallet, he was an editor and programmer at ESPN and a copy editor at the San Jose Mercury News.

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Virtually all married couples file their taxes jointly, and who can blame them? It’s usually easier to prepare one tax return than two, and it almost always results in a lower tax bill than filing separately.

But sometimes, using the married filing separately tax status to split up those returns might make sense financially. Here's how it works and when it could benefit you.

What is married filing separately?

Married filing separately is one of five tax filing statuses available to taxpayers. Under this status, each spouse files their own tax return instead of one return jointly. Instead of combining income, each person separately reports income and deductions. You must be married to use this status.

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How married filing separately works

Although most married couples file jointly , they can choose the married filing separately status if they want [0]

If you don't live with your spouse, you have a dependent who lives with you, and you pay for more than half of the expenses of keeping your home, you may be able to use the head of household status instead of either married status. However, the rules here are complicated, so make sure you speak with a tax pro beforehand.

Married filing separately: Standard deduction

When filing their taxes, people can take either the standard deduction or itemize to lower their taxable income. Most people tend to take the standard deduction because it is easier to calculate and often exceeds the value of their itemized deductions. The standard deduction amount for those married filing separately is typically half the value of those married filing jointly.

For 2023 returns filed in 2024, the standard deduction for those married filing separately is $13,850, whereas the standard deduction for joint returns is double: $27,700.

In 2024 (taxes filed in 2025), those filing separately can take $14,600. Those filing jointly, on the other hand, can take a standard deduction of $29,200.

Married filing separately rules

Both spouses must take deductions the same way: If one spouse itemizes instead of taking the standard deduction, for example, the other spouse must itemize, too. You’ll also have to decide which spouse gets each deduction, and that can get complicated.

You might get locked out of certain tax benefits : When using married filing separately, there are a bunch of deductions and credits you probably won’t be allowed to take, such as the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the earned income credit , the adoption credit, education credits and the deduction for student loan interest.

Understand how your tax bracket will change : Filing separately isn’t the same as filing single. Only single people can file single, and their tax brackets are different in some cases from the ones that will apply to you if you're married and filing separately.

Advantages of filing separately vs. jointly

In the right circumstances, being married and filing separately could save you money. Here are a few things to think about if you’re considering whether it’s right for you.

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 , or 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 a month in student loan payments.

However, keep in mind that you won't be able to take several education tax credits, like the student loan interest deduction or the 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, he or she could deduct anything over 7.5% of that $45,000 AGI, or $3,375. That would mean a $2,625 tax deduction for filing separately.

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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.

Married filing separately: Bottom line

Filing a joint tax return usually results in a lower tax bill, but sometimes the married filing separate tax-filing status makes sense.

If you’re thinking seriously about filing separately, there’s one more thing to understand: Even if you do the math and determine you’ll pay less by filing separately, state law might throw a wrench in your plans. That’s because if you live in a community property state — Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington or Wisconsin — anything couples earn generally belongs to both spouses equally. Couples filing separately there each have to report half of the income both spouses earned, which could nullify most of the advantages of filing separately.

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Tina Orem is an editor at NerdWallet. Before becoming an editor, she was NerdWallet's authority on taxes and small business. Her work has appeared in a variety of local and national outlets. See full bio.

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