Income taxes in Ohio - the argument for Married Filing Separately

After getting married in May of 2010, this will be my first year filing my income taxes as anything other than single.

In an effort to reduce my tax burden, I evaluated the options of both Married filing Jointly, and Married filing seperately.

Every where I read, from FreeTaxUSA.com to turbotax.com , the repeated message is that it is rarely in your best interests to file separately.

If you live in Ohio - rethink this.

You can find the tax tables for 2004-2012 here.
For 2010

Ohio Taxable Income	Tax Calculation
0 – $5,050	0.618% of Ohio taxable income
$5,050 – $10,100	$31.21 + 1.236% of excess of $5,050
$10,100 – $15,150	$93.63 + 2.473% of excess over $10,100
$15,150 – $20,200	$218.52 + 3.091% of excess over $15,150
$20,200 – $40,350	$374.62 + 3.708% of excess over $20,200
$40,350 – $80,700	$1,121.78 + 4.327% of excess over $40,350
$80,700 – $100,900	$2,867.72 + 4.945% of excess over $80,700
$100,900 – $201,800	$3,866.61 + 5.741% of excess over $100,900
More than $201,800	$9,659.28 + 6.24% of excess over $201,800

Doing these calculations for a combined income of 80k, 100k, and 160k shows that it is clearly a marriage penalty in Ohio to file Jointly:

MiddleClass , similar salaries
	Income	Base Tax	%	Liability
Indiv. A	40000	1121.78	0.04327	1106.6355
Indiv. B	40000	1121.78	0.04327	1106.6355
Couple AB	80000	3866.61	0.05741	2666.741	<-joint liability	453.47	<- Extra cost of filing jointly
Upper Middle Class, similar salaries
	Income	Base Tax	%	Liability
Indiv. C	80000	1121.78	0.04327	2837.4355
Indiv. D	80000	1121.78	0.04327	2837.4355
Couple CD	160000	3866.61	0.05741	7259.541	<-joint liability	1584.67	<- Extra cost of filing jointly
One spouse making much more than the other
	Income	Base Tax	%	Liability
Indiv. E	80000	1121.78	0.04327	2837.4355
Indiv. F	20000	218.52	0.0391	408.155
Couple EF	100000	3866.61	0.05741	3814.941	<-joint liability	569.3505	<- Extra cost of filing jointly