Earned Income Exclusion and Filing jointly

[HoneyandSonny 0]

Hey guys...I have been trying to figure out how I should go about filing this year and whether or not we can use the foreign earned income exclusion.

I called the IRS in order to receive some clarification on the matter but now I am totally confused. The email states....

if your husband is not a U.S. Citizen he would not be eligible to exclude his earned income under the "Foreign Earned Income Exclusion" unless he is a Citizen or a National of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty. The United States does not have an income tax treaty with Lebanon or Saudi Arabia.

If your husband is a non-resident alien he would not qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion unless he has a Trade or Business in the United States.

Also...

If you make the election to file a joint return and treat your spouse as a resident alien for the entire year, the law still requires that he be a Citizen or National of a country that the United States has a tax treaty with. In addition to that requirement he would have to meet all other requirements as listed in Publication 54 chapter 4.

How do we file then? If we can't do a joint return then would be file separately?

[Nita&Assaad 0]

I never had that problem, maybe its something new, we filed jointy and didn't hae any problems. I just send him the forms to sign and once he was here we filed the same but this time with his SS number. Before he was issued a IRS tax number. I am not sure if that answered your question, but hopefully makes it more clear.

Good Luck

Nita