I am considering having my wife and filing under the "married filing separately" status, as we may end up getting a bigger refund for 2009.

My employer offered a dependent care flexible spending account, which I used to pay for our son's daycare expenses. We used the maximum amount (for married filing JOINTLY", $5000), for 2009.

I now realize that the maximum for married filing separately is $2500. While I could have arranged to deduct this much from my own paycheck and another $2500 from my wife's, we did not anticipate this filing status and did not do it this way (all $5000 was from my paycheck).

Is there a way to make a change retroactively and file with the married filing separately status, or are we locked in to married filing jointly?

Thanks for your help.