re: Doubling 401K Contribution During Downturn

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What are the back door options for a Roth? My wife and I’s combined income is going to be over the qualifier but she would be fine if it’s only her income. Can you file married but separate and still get through with it?

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You need to talk to a tax professional but I will make general opinion statements.

Back door Roth is a good idea if you have a while until you retire and are not going to get screwed by the pro rata IRA tax issues. You need to make sure any IRA money you are not converting via back door has been rolled into a 401k before the 2022 IRA cash is rolled into a Roth from the traditional. Otherwise you will have financial penalties that might be big.

I don't see any obvious benefits to changing your filing status from joint to married but separate if you are doing a back door conversion. There are differences in income thresholds for Roth eligibility with that kind of issue but when you are contributing to a traditional that's not relevant

ETA if your objective in playing around with the filing status is to avoid having to do a back door and just directly make a Roth contribution I think reading the IRS rules will show you the they don't allow that. But the back door is still allowed so long as you know the rules and trip wires.