@jclark11 "I have determined that as long as you have similar incomes with husband and wife."

And that's easy to reach in community property states.

It helps not to have some of those pesky credits not allowed to MFS filers. I'm working on a return with $18K unemployment paid to one spouse, included in joint income of $200K but only $100K for each MFS.  I don't know who's arguing about whether unemployment is community income, but I don't think they have read years of IRS guidance.  Excluding $9K on each return results in a savings of more than $4,000.  I think I'll throw in $300 charitable for each, since IRS may have to admit its error on that one before they get around to processing these returns.