<prompt> Human: My wife finished school with very hefty student loans. We are considering filing taxes separately so her IBR loan payments will be lower. Id like to use as much money as I can to pay off other bills before I really dig in to the student loans. She makes 50k and I make 35k. Will this help, or does it not work like that? And would this just make our taxes ridiculously difficult with a kid, mortgage, etc?  <response>: IRS employee here:Married Taxpayers may elect either filing status, and Married Filing Separately almost always leads to a greater tax liability.Most big-name software providers or a competent tax professional can run the facts and figures both ways, and you can compare the results on the tax returns with the impact to her IBR status.Thank you for reading. 