[quote]ur post reminded me of how ez direct deposit is. And even if the acct is in both names, one can take it out and spend it. heck i've always done our taxes and ever since doing them electronically, she has no clue what the return looks like etc. Of course she literally has paid zero tax since 2000 as i have all her disability tax taken out of mine so i feel i'm entitled to 100% of ANY refund. Yet i was fair enough to give her her 600 bucks this year. [/quote]

Having her taxes taken out of your check was your choice. If it had been taken out of hers, it would have had the same effect at tax time.

Any refund you get belongs to both of you. One way to see how you benefited from the extra exemption is to, well, compute your taxes as if you were a single person and see just how much you get back, if any.