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Should Married Physicians File Taxes Jointly or Separately?

For married physicians, choosing how to file your taxes isn’t just a formality; it can affect your tax bill, student loan strategy, and overall financial plan. 

In this short video, we walk through the key considerations behind filing jointly versus separately, so you can understand the trade-offs and make a more informed decision for your household.

Transcript:

How Should You File Your Taxes?

Hi, I’m Ben Martinek with Bona Fide Finance, and the topic we want to chat about today is somewhat surprising. It’s the question of how should you file your taxes? Thanks for joining me, folks. If you’re a first-generation physician, you may be introduced to this concept that you haven’t really spent any time thinking about, because when you’re thinking of taxes, you’re often thinking about income and what gets taxed and how much does that income get taxed.

Why Filing Status Matters More Than Income

One of the critical things that impacts the level of taxation you might see comes in a way that’s not even income-based per se. It’s your filing status. How are you going to file on your taxes? And there’s different filing statuses available to people. You could file single, you can file married and jointly, you can file married but separately, you can file as head of household, you can file as a qualified widower.

Common Filing Statuses

There’s a number of different possibilities, but the most common that people are pursuing are either single, married filing separately, or married filing jointly. If you’re married, you should do married filing jointly, because why would you file separately? I mean, we’re together, aren’t we? So it doesn’t make any sense to file separately. But whether you file separately or jointly can have a huge difference on those taxes.

Factors That Affect Tax Differences

Now how big of a difference really just kind of depends on a number of variables. One it depends on are you a single income household or do you have two sources of income? Do both of you work and produce earnings? Also what’s your state of residence? Because if you are in a common law state, which are how most states are handled versus a community property state, which a couple, about a dozen states are handled, the way you handle filing separately on your taxes changes rather drastically as well. Do you have children maybe within the household? Because if you do, then some deductions or credits or benefits related to that could be going away by filing separately rather than jointly.

When Filing Separately Can Be Beneficial

So in our experience, there are times in which filing separately could produce a tax benefit to you specifically. If you live in a community property state, filing separately is not that much of a tax impact at all. It just kind of complicates things because now we have two returns rather than just one joint return. But there is a general tendency where you will pay more to file separately rather than jointly.

Reasons to Consider Filing Separately

And so what would be some of the reasons to file separately? If you have student loans, that’s probably one of the biggest reasons to file separately. You want to file separately so you can base your income for recertification purposes on just your individual earnings and a requirement within the income driven repayment plans is to file separately so that you can look at just your individual earnings instead of the household earnings.

But there could be other reasons why you might want to file separately. You have joint tax liability when you file jointly. And so if there’s concerns about your spouse maybe fulfilling all their tax obligations or doing what they need to be doing, or maybe they’ve gotten themselves in trouble with the IRS or maybe some other government agencies and they’re in a point of garnishing wages or pulling refunds and then applying that to debts that are due, perhaps filing separately is the right way to go to keep that action from taking place.

The Impact of Filing Separately

And so this is a bit of a nuanced conversation. It’s not even directly related to income, but it can change things. The impact will vary. Sometimes it’s just a few hundred dollars for filing separately. But we’ve seen it be as much as 40 grand to file separately. So there can be a really big difference there. Just depends on what’s going on in the household.

How Bona Fide Finance Can Help

And so if you’re looking for help on this, you’re not sure you have student loans, have taxes because we all have taxes, we all have to submit these filings and you’re looking for guidance. Why don’t you reach out and give us a call? We’d love to chat with you and see about getting this straightened out. This is what we do really every single day for our clients. We handle taxes. We handle filing statuses. We handle student loans. So reach out to hello@bonafidefinance.com and you will get in touch with you. So you can give us a call at 701-203-3219.

Final Thoughts

So thanks so much for listening and wish you the best of luck on that filing status decision. Sometimes it is a little tricky.

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Jared Schumacher

PhD, Paraplanner

Jared Schumacher holds numerous degrees in engineering/business and the humanities, including a PhD in Political Theology, and is a published researcher in the fields of politics, economics, social theory, and theology. He recently left a career as an associate professor to join the team at Bona Fide Finance, where he hopes to put his moral and political focus to good use offering financial services and advice for navigating our complex political and economic climate with integrity and thoughtfulness. He joins the team as a paraplanner, while studying to obtain the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® certification in the coming years. 

Jared grew up in Alaska and Texas, and spent over a decade studying and teaching abroad with his wife, Carrie, living in Lithuania and Belgium, but also spending considerable time in Germany and Uganda. Their family has grown to include eight kids; and when not contemplating the mysteries of the financial universe, their days are full with homeschooling, soccer and baseball practice, and piano recitals.

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Dorian Antešić

Associate Advisor

Rooted in Europe and serving clients worldwide, Dorian advances Bona Fide Finance’s global, research-driven investment process. He is an Investment Advisor Representative and an associate advisor who leads the firm’s investment research and portfolio construction, giving each plan a consistent, evidence-based foundation so clients can stay disciplined through any market cycle. Working at the intersection of American and European finance and business culture, he helps families align portfolios with what truly matters to them. He is also working toward the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.

His path into finance has been global from the start—and personal from a young age. Introduced to the world of finance and economics by his grandfather, an accountant and entrepreneur, Dorian grew up curious about how money moves and how families build durable wealth. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting and a master’s degree in finance and banking, with studies across three countries: University of Rijeka (Croatia), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), and University of Coimbra (Portugal). He has lived in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Spain, and traveled to 22 countries across three continents. An explorer at heart, he continues to work remotely while traveling, building a wide network and a practical, cross-border perspective on how families can grow and preserve wealth.

Before joining Bona Fide Finance, Dorian worked with Sovereign Man (now Schiff Sovereign), exploring international real estate, offshore banking, and second residencies and citizenships to help families enhance their financial sovereignty. He also partnered with economist Saifedean Ammous, author of the bestselling The Bitcoin Standard, contributing research on the printing industry and helping establish a global fulfillment network for his books—work acknowledged in The Fiat Standard and Principles of Economics. Raised on the Adriatic island of Rab, he now lives in Croatia with his wife, Kim, and they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first child, Gabriel.

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Bonnie Martinek

Administrative Assistant
Bonnie (Ben’s mom!) is a mother of 9 and a grandmother of 17. She has lived in rural Indiana her whole life and has a master’s degree in Special Education. In her own words, she’s done a little bit of everything but is a master of none (teaching, construction, manager of a corn maze, CNA, farm work, cashier, auto bodywork, and the list goes on!). Widowed in 2019, she is reinventing herself through her work in the day-to-day operations of Bona Fide Finance and client relations. Bonnie loves getting to know our clients and is happy to serve them well!
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Deb Martinek

Relationships Specialist

Deb has been with Bona Fide Finance since its inception in 2015 and long before that with her support of Ben studying for the CFP designation and the dream of starting the business of helping individuals and families meet their financial goals.

She fills the Relationships Specialist role – Deb is typically the first encounter our new clients have as she walks them through our service offerings and introduces them to the map of financial literacy.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a master’s degree from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Deb lives in Bismarck with Ben and their two young daughters, is a card-carrying member of the CDL club (read more about those adventures here) and is happiest reading an epic novel, solving a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, or working in her kitchen where she can serve love to the people in her life through quality food (clients enjoy her holiday shipment of homemade goodies each December!).

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Ben Martinek

CFP®, EA, CSLP®, RICP®, Founder and Advisor

Ben Martinek, CFP®, EA, CSLP®, RICP®, is the founder and lead advisor at Bona Fide Finance, an independent, fee-only firm dedicated to helping doctors, young professionals, and growing families take control of their financial future. With a deep understanding of student loan debt—having tackled his own—Ben specializes in guiding clients through debt repayment strategies, smart investing, and comprehensive financial planning so they can build wealth with confidence. Ben’s passion for financial planning comes from his desire to provide honest, objective advice tailored to each client’s unique situation. He loves seeing the impact of his work, whether it’s helping a family pay off student loans years ahead of schedule, setting up an early retiree for financial freedom, or giving clients the peace that comes from knowing their finances are in order. His clients appreciate his thoughtful, high-touch approach, often saying that working with him has changed their lives.

Before launching Bona Fide Finance in 2015, Ben’s career path was anything but conventional. The fourth of nine children, he grew up in rural Indiana and initially pursued a path in academia, earning a B.A. in philosophy and classical languages, followed by a master’s degree in philosophy. Along the way, he explored careers in construction and truck driving—logging over 600,000 miles across the U.S. with his wife, Deb—before finding his true calling in financial planning.

Now based in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ben and Deb stay busy raising their two daughters, Edith and Virginia. Since their truck-driving days, Ben is happiest on a long road trip—preferably behind the wheel of his TDI Volkswagen Jetta. He enjoys sailing on Lake Sakakawea, camping in their vintage ’90s pop-up camper, and smoking a pipe by the grill. A lover of strategy board games, he favors Clans of Caledonia (mostly because Deb refuses to play Risk with him). When he’s not working with clients, he can be found smoking meat, gardening, hiking, or diving into The Lord of the Rings or Dune. Ben also serves on the school board for his daughters’ Montessori school and is actively involved in pre-marriage ministry in the Bismarck Diocese.

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