<prompt> Human: I got married in April 2017 and was unemployed for most of last year: my income for 2017 was basically sub 5000. I did not get health insurance until November 2017 when open enrollment began at my wifes work.My penalty re the individual mandate will be about 1500 if we are taking into account my wife and Is combined income for 2017.My question is this: would it be better to look into filing taxes individually this year in order to reduce the amount I owe for the ACA mandate? Or should we still file a joint return?  <response>: Yes this may be a time where married filing separately is better for you given what 2.5 of your individual income versus your combined income would be for the penalty. You can play around with the 17 calculators to see whats more effective. 