Hi. About a year ago I moved to the United States with my wife. I'm a US citizen, my wife just received her permanent residency status.
I've been employed throughout 2012 and have been receiving a salary regularly. My gross income for 2012 will be around $47,000. As for itemizing, I believe that only the medical insurance premiums and medical bills qualify and I'm estimating they would total to about $5500 for the year.
My wife did not earn any income at all in 2012 since she didn't yet have her work permit.
My wife will be starting a new teaching job in January 2013 and she is currently filling out the paper work.
I have a few questions:
1. I'm curious to know if we should file taxes separately or jointly for 2012. We have no children. We have no other income other than my salary and we don't own property.
2. My wife needs to fill out a W-4 form for her new job which starts next month and she needs to mark whether she intends to file taxes separately or jointly for 2013. What should be the considerations for this?
3. Is it okay to mark one of the options in the W-4 form - either MFJ or MFS - and then change your mind when it is time to do your taxes?

I realize that a tax professional would certainly be able to give us the best answers, but because I believe that our case is really pretty straight forward and simple - that I have a feeling we can probably manage without hiring a professional.

Any information, tips and advise on this will be much appreciated!

Thank you!