This might sound like an old question, but it's a little different than what you might be thinking. My wife and I are permanently separated, we haven't filed for divorce because this way I can use her insurance, and so forth. When this happened I did a quick calculation on a tax estimator site and it appeared that we would get a better return by a thousand dollars if we stayed married. But one of her friends said the overall return would be the same if we were divorced. Without going back and figuring each out separately, I figured I would seek out from the helpful people in internet land.

Is it a benefit tax return wise for us to stay married or would we come out the same either way?

Thank you for your help,
Joseph