Does Filing Jointly vs. Separately Affect the Marital Estate

[bholabhala]

So here;s the deal. I filed my 2011 taxes back in Feb 2012. I filed as Married Joint and now wanna go ahead and change it to Married Separate. Since Texas is a community state. Will doing this enable my wife, at a later time, to claim half of my earnings? I just dont want to keep her on my tax returns, since she was not living with me, and has $0 income

I just dont want to shoot myself in the foot and enable her to take any action against me in the future

[Mr. Knowitall]

The IRS has nothing to do with Texas family law. Whether assets are treated as marital/joint or separate in a divorce is a function of family law.