Hi,

We both husband and wife are in H1B and working. We have a baby.

We are planning to file tax separately and one of us will file tax including baby as a dependent.

Do you friends have any suggestions on filing separately or we should file jointly?

Appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks.

Loina

AFAIK, the advantages of filing tax jointly always overweighs the individual tax filing.
On the first hand, why the heck you want to file it separately? I dont see any valid outcomes anyways.

loina,
you will get more return if you file jointly.

or you can try turbo tax and try both the options. I did mine in that way and in my case joint return more than single.

You can not file one of you as married filing single and other as head of household, I am just making you aware, married filing joint is the best way forward from tax perspective.

Thank you guys. Appreciated your suggestions.

Okay here are the pros and cons (basically the cons of filing separate)

1. You mentioned you are both on H1b so I assume both of you work fulltime.  If you pay someone to take care of the kid then you might not get the tax credit for dependent care. Depending on the expense it can range from $600 to $1,200
2. If you file separate and your kid is less than 13 years old, you cannot claim the child tax credit - another $1,000.
3. If one of you have higher state taxes deducted on W-2 and the other one doesn't, it may affect AMT tax and itemized deduction.
4. The only pro of filing separate is that some times people with higher income get phased out on many deductions due to higher Adjusted Gross Income.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Raj

If you or anyone need more professional help with taxes, you can visit www.ledgerllc.com

If you want to pay less for your tax I would like to suggest TAXACT.COM. Just 17.99 way cheaper than Turbo tax. It is user friendly as turbo tax.  
The very first time I was seeking help on filing my tax, an old Nepali resident suggested me that go to the post box get the 1040 instruction book, read it and try to do it.  Read and re-read, no help needed. Now I can do taxes. .

How you got the idea of filing Married Filing Separately idea? If some one suggested that , then stay away .

If the woman is married but the child is not from the current husband, then, of course, filing seperately is more Lavdayak...

When you want to say something say clearly, Kura na ghumaunus na..

good luck!

LOL to the last post!

SIS साउ संग ब्याज आए पछी त्यो ब्याज को माउ संग Married Filing Jointly  फाइल गरे  पछी with one child  ३६००० सम्म Earned Income भए, त्यो Earned Income Credit  पाउछ किन तर्साएको ?

That is the only beauty marrying a  women with child, chunk of money for Earned Income Tax Credit . If you have 3 or more you can get up to 5700 and 1000 child tax credit for each child.

9 9 9 9  Refund  as Mr. King has advertised in his campain

. Upto $9999 as per H & R Block .

Enjoy it.