I would consider opening up a new file for the married filing joint couple since you did not prepare the taxpayers return last year, i.e. you prepared the wife's return when she was single and now she is the spouse ..If you create a new married filing joint file I believe the new file will be under the husband's name (taxpayer) and Social Security number , so it wouldn't interfere with the wife's data/file from last year. If you do not need the wife's old file/data, then you could just leave it in the system as a separate file if you wish to , I don't think it hurts anything to be there and you may need to reference it .. This is just my opinion.. I am not an expert on this so it is just my opinion, you do what you want to...