<prompt> Human: My wife and i got married in August of 2015. I made 85,000 last year and she made around 15,000. My question is weather or not we should file together or separately. I claim 0 on my w2 while she claims 1.  <response>: This is a pretty simple question if you know how it works. Imagine a clear bucket with a series of marks up the side, the lowest says untaxed, the next one says 10, the next one says 15 and so forth.Right now you each have a bucket. Her bucket only has a little water in the bottom, 23 of it is in the untaxed area, 13 of it is in the 10 area. The 15 line is completely dry. Meanwhile your bucket has the water much, much higher. For you the 10 and 15 lines are completely underwater and youre almost over the 25 line.By filing separately you have your heavy bucket with lots of water in the 25 area while her bucket is barely filled above untaxed line. By filing jointly you pour water from your bucket into her bucket until theyre both filled up to the same level. And when you pour from yours to hers it empties yours from the top in the 25 area and fills her from the bottom the 10 area.Make sense? 