Do I have to fill taxes for 2009?

[dutchmatt 1]

Hi,

I moved to the US Nov 26 on a k1 and received my SSN in early December. Do I have to fill US taxes for 2009?

Thanks

[Kathryn41 3,205]

You should.

You will also need to file a Canadian 'exit' return using the regular return for the Province in which you lived and marking the date that you left and filing it with the International Tax Office in Quebec. You will want to prepare your Canadian return first as one of the options for filing your US returns will need to have the tax information from the Canadian return available. You and your US spouse should see which is more advantageous for you - filing jointly or filing married, separately for the US. If you have no US income, you may find it advantageous to file as if you lived the whole year in the US as if you were a permanent resident. You would declare your world income (although there is a certain amount that is exempted as well) and then take a foreign tax credit for the taxes you paid in Canada. Your spouse would then get the married deduction benefits. If you don't declare world income, then I don't believe she can claim the married deductions but that is what you will need to check. For us, this worked out to be the most beneficial arrangement tax wise when I moved here. If it is more advantageous for you to file separately, then you don't need to declare your Canadian income and you would have a very simple US tax return as married, filing separately. Again, your wife would miss out on some good deductions though. You might want to see the tax thread currently under discussion in the Canada Regional forum http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=239576