In some situations thousands of tax dollars can be saved by using the married filing separate filing status. However, doing so can trigger a larger income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA) to your Medicare premium.

For example, the monthly adjustment for a single taxpayer with modified adjusted gross income of $109,000 is $81.20 per month. A married taxpayer filing separately with the same income will have a monthly adjustment of $446.30. In that situation it will most likely be better to file a joint tax return and pay the extra income tax.

Be sure to consider IRMAA when choosing your filing status. Here is the IRS link for the surcharges.

https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-44.pdf