If you are working with a professional advisor, enlist their help before year end. There are three simple steps you'll want to know more about:
1. Review each return separately and make sure it's prepared to the individual's best tax benefit, starting with the lowest income earner and working you way up the the highest.
2. Now look at the results on each return from a family, rather than individual, viewpoint. Did you claim all transferrable deductions and remember to split family income?
3. Now tweak your tax and financial plans, to make the best investiment decisions for the family unit as a whole.