Hello all,

I got married this year- when tax season comes around, I get to choose the whole married filing jointly, filing separately, etc.  What are the pros and cons of each?

For reference, I am military, she is part time/seasonal federal job and makes about 1/4 of my take home.

You will be better to file together.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2015/03/18/married-filing-jointly-vs-separately-a-cpa-weighs-in/#cb2a2141c9cb

You can always have your cpa run it and see which is better. Almost always its better to file together.

This.

There are very rare cases where it MFS works out better.  I can guarantee yours is not one of them given the income disparity between you and your spouse.

I primarily see MSF when one spouse has outstanding tax debt and the IRS would keep any refunds.  Pay more in tax overall, but the spouse without the debt gets their refund.

As stated, married filing joint works out in favor of married filing separate in almost EVERY case.

There are very few cases where it could work out in favor of filing separate but I'm not really up on that. You should talk to a CPA just to get their input on it. If there is a large income disparity (like she is "poverty level" on her income alone) then there may be ways for her to take advantage of certain tax credits etc, but once again, I'm not an expert and I'm not familiar with that end of the spectrum.

Unfortunately MFS means you are disqualified from taking most of the credits and deductions available.

The last 3 years, I've ran the numbers both ways in turbo tax and it always comes out to file jointly is better.