married filed joint but was it worth it?

[needofhelpinNJ]

What is the name of your state?
New Jersey. Ok, so I have issues..sorry. My husband and I filed our taxes 2 years ago jointly. He had not adopted my daughter at that time. We went to somebody that his mother recommended...won't do that again. We were told that since my husband made over a certain amount of money that we were not entitled to all of the refund for my daughter's "dependant care" for nursary school (which she needed to go for me to work). I spent $5,000 a year for her to go and then was told I can't claim it all. I got hurt at work the same year that we were filing for and they had me out of work on a weekly basis so I didn't know when I would go back to work. I took money out of my 401K to put a downpayment on a house. I took out $22,000. I know that the first $10,000 as a first time home buyer was ok and not taxed. But then with me only working for 1/2 of the year and then that money it worked out to my normal pay. I asked the tax person if it would be better to file married but separate. Her answer was that she "wasn't doing it over again she did it once and that was good enough". My questions are. If I filed as a single mother since I was the only "parent" paying anything or anything like that could that have brought our return higher? And if so could I still try to get it now?
Thank you
needofhelpinNJ

[Snipes5]

Your only filing options would have been Married Filing a Joint Return, or Married Filing Separate.

I can tell you with 95% accuracy, knowing absolutely nothing about your situation, that the likelyhood of coming out better filing MFS is less than zero.

In other words, no, it would not have helped you. When you take that much out of a 401K, your taxes are going to suck, period.

The only thing I can offer, is if you itemized your deductions, and had medical expenses greater than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, you could have excluded that amount from the $22,000, in addition to the $10,000 you were already able to exclude.

Snipes

[needofhelpinNJ]

Thank you very much....at least that puts my mind to rest. My medical bills were from an injury at work and they paid for it, so I guess no my medical bills weren't much that year.
Thanks again.
needofhelpinNJ