Questions about taxes

[payxibka 10,045]

Well my confusion is that when you check "head of household" that means that you are the one earning the income for the household!!! So that does not exclude that you are married, does it?????

As a Canadian, that is not an option! My taxes do state that we are married and I had to show the amount he made.

HOH has a specific definition as provided by the IRS... If you meet the definition then you can use that status. With one or two exception, HOH is for single households with qualified dependants...

Edited November 17, 2008 by payxibka

[jhunjhun 7]

Well my confusion is that when you check "head of household" that means that you are the one earning the income for the household!!! So that does not exclude that you are married, does it?????

As a Canadian, that is not an option! My taxes do state that we are married and I had to show the amount he made.

HOH has a specific definition as provided by the IRS... If you meet the definition then you can use that status. With one or two exception, HOH is for single households with qualified dependants...

So if the person is adjusting his/her status for this year because he or she is married to USC, what exactly would be the status of the 2008 filers if he/she is married when filing his/her income tax return? Do you think our spouse can claim us as his/her dependent upon filing her tax return for 2008?

[payxibka 10,045]

Well my confusion is that when you check "head of household" that means that you are the one earning the income for the household!!! So that does not exclude that you are married, does it?????

As a Canadian, that is not an option! My taxes do state that we are married and I had to show the amount he made.

HOH has a specific definition as provided by the IRS... If you meet the definition then you can use that status. With one or two exception, HOH is for single households with qualified dependants...

So if the person is adjusting his/her status for this year because he or she is married to USC, what exactly would be the status of the 2008 filers if he/she is married when filing his/her income tax return? Do you think our spouse can claim us as his/her dependent upon filing her tax return for 2008?

Yes, the possibility exists... The only question is does the alien qualify as a resident alien for tax purposes on there own (greencard test or substantial presence test) or does the special election exception to be treated as a resident alien need to be selected.

Edited November 17, 2008 by payxibka

[Y's_habibitk 2]

I was just reseaching this today... you can file as HOH and still qualify if filing married but sperated. there is some verbage about being "considered unmarried"

Im searching irs.gov and then I thought... lemme check with my fellow vj'ers, and here you are talkign about it lol

Lisa

[payxibka 10,045]

I was just reseaching this today... you can file as HOH and still qualify if filing married but sperated. there is some verbage about being "considered unmarried"

Im searching irs.gov and then I thought... lemme check with my fellow vj'ers, and here you are talkign about it lol

Lisa

If you have a non-resident alien spouse and you otherwise have a qualifying dependant... you can elect to be treated as HOH...

[SerenityNOW 11]

Hi - just stopped in to check something and saw this. We went through a LOT of discussions about this earlier this year, maybe they will turn up on a search if you try that. Probably around February was the height of the frenzy.

I was married in November of 2007. I filed "married filing jointly" and got a sizeable refund, as my husband was unemployed for the year (was in the US for 6 months, was injured before that and in the remaining 3 months of the year he basically did construction free of charge for various family members - it's COMPLETELY different over there. Especially when you own your house and have mamas and babas cooking for you He just doesn't need much money to get by )

Basically the consensus was that if you are married, you should file married, especially since you have to submit those tax returns as part of your I-864. Even though it seems weird to file jointly with someone who isn't even allowed in the country, it's weirder to file *single* if you are not single... but some people said they were going to do that and amend their taxes later... so that is an option.

To file jointly, you do need to go through the ITIN process since your spouse presumably doesn't have a Social Security Number, which involves (at least last year it did) a notarized copy of your foreign spouse's passport. Look at the IRS instructions closely, they say that what they want verified is that the copy is an actual copy, NOT that the passport belongs to your spouse. I - and at least one other person I know of - had our spouses mail their passports here (FedEx) with the authorized copy and had the notary verify that. I didn't want it notarized in Bulgarian and then have to translate it (and no, the American Embassy in Bulgaria does not do it, we checked).

The notary public I used also wanted to see another form of ID from him, so luckily I had a copy of his national identity card, too.

We submitted the IRS's W7 form with our taxes. I don't remember if you can do it as a separate process or not.

All the info. you need is here:

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/intern...d=96696,00.html

There was some discussion about the rules about salary earned abroad. Be careful with that one. There seemed to be a lot of confusion about what had to be included.

Don't know if this helps the OP or anyone else - pretty much any way you do it, it's a pain. But if your spouse didn't make much money in his/her country, and you file jointly, the refund will help pay for some plane tickets...

/bb

[himher 634]

This is what we did -

We married summer, 2007, my wife did not arrive until late Jan, 2008. She did not get her SS card until mid-may.

For tax season (this year), we waited for the SS card to come in and filed in May - a month late

We filed Married/joint

We wrote a letter declaring our choice to treat her as resident alien for all of 2007

We included her 2007 income with mine

We then filed foreign earned income exclusion for her income, as she met the physical presence test (never stepped foot on US soil until Jan, 2008) and excluded ALL of her income

Since we got a refund anyway, we had until October to file with no penalty and we did not have to file an extension. The reason we waited to file late is that the stimulus checks counted a resident alien spouse with a SS# but discounted a spouse with an ITIN.

I did this after researching and speaking with an IRS tax specialist.

OH and our return did not "sit in a pile". We filed online using turbotax and mailed in whatever documentation they asked for.

[lgg 2]

Well my confusion is that when you check "head of household" that means that you are the one earning the income for the household!!! So that does not exclude that you are married, does it?????

As a Canadian, that is not an option! My taxes do state that we are married and I had to show the amount he made.

Hey there... so I have a question then, if we get married end of December for this year and then he's still in the US and I"m here in Canada and I file my CDN taxes, I have to claim him and his income??? Even though we don't live together nor his he part of the Canadian system and I"m just starting my Visa process?

There must be a way to amend this, no?

I"ve posted this everywhere but am not getting a lot of answers, I'm sure some of you guys must have gone through this, any help would be appreciated.

[MMW 2]

Hi All:

I'm not sure if this is the right place... but I figured a lot of us here woud be in the same boat! I married my husband in June and tax season is almost here... but he isn't.

So, my question is, what do I do about filling taxes? Are we able to file jointly? Do we need to get him a Tax Identification Number? Or, will getting that number cause a problem with the rest of our paperwork? Or, is th eonly option to file married, seperately. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Melissa

hello, yes you would need a ITIN for your husband but also remember if you want to qualify for the tax stimulus return you cant list your husband because of the rules around the rebate. i would suggest if you don't need his deduction on your taxes that you wait to add him to your return until he is stateside and has a SS number not just a tax id #.

Edited November 23, 2008 by MMW