2011 Tax Return Questions

[tuvaty 3]

VJers,

As we prepare to file our taxes for 2011, some of us may have questions regarding the issue of filing as 'married' or 'single' on our returns. There may have been topics discussed on this issue already, but I just wanted to revive it again and ask what others have done in the past.

If you're married, and your spouse is living abroad, a non-US citizen (a foreign national), and you have just submitted your petition to the USCIS, how will you file your taxes? Will you request an ITIN from the IRS and file as married, or will you file as single?

Please share your experiences, and let us know what works best, as most of us will have questions like these in the coming weeks.

Thx!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96734,00.html Edited January 14, 2012 by ☼

[Darnell 8,479]

My wife just got her ITIN last month , we filed for Tax Year 2010 in December of 2011.

Now that she has an ITIN, when I file for Tax Year 2011 - I'll use the ITIN on the 1040 form..

[tuvaty 3]

Thanks guys.

I am planning to file it single for 2011, then make an amendment later (because it takes forever to get that ITIN for my nonresident alien spouse), you think will that work?

[Terca 6]

Here are 2 escenarios from my personal experience:

-For tax year 2009 I wanted to claim the "Married Filing Separate" option on my taxes. Using online software to E-FILE didn't permit me to file without my husband's SSN/ITIN. I needed my refund money ASAP in order to pay for my college courses and waiting for an ITIN number and filing snail mail were not good options for me. I decided to file as "single" and ammended my taxes a couple of months later. I received my refund fast paid for college and only then did I ammend. When I ammended my taxes I didn't claim the EIC (earned income credit) in order to avoid complications and keep the refund as it was. I received a letter accepting my ammended return but letting me know that the "change" was not going to show on my transcripts. I saved the letter in case I needed it for the interview in order to explain why I filed single while being married. Thankfully, this was not an issue during the interview at all.

-For tax year 2010 I wanted to do things right plus I didn't need my refund ASAP. I snailed mailed my federal return as "married filing separate" along with form W-7 and notarized copies of my husband's IDs. I got my refund no problem but received an official letter addressed to him saying that they could not provide my hubby with an ITIN number because they had not received HIS return. I didn't give a ####### because I only wanted the number in order to fill out my taxes correctly, and he was going to receive his social security card anyways upon entry to US.

-For this tax year husband is here so I'm filing "married filing Jointly"

p.s Keep in mind that IRS is no longer accepting 'NRA' or anything other than the ITIN/SSN for foreign spouse on the forms.

[tuvaty 3]

Here are 2 escenarios from my personal experience:

-For tax year 2009 I wanted to claim the "Married Filing Separate" option on my taxes. Using online software to E-FILE didn't permit me to file without my husband's SSN/ITIN. I needed my refund money ASAP in order to pay for my college courses and waiting for an ITIN number and filing snail mail were not good options for me. I decided to file as "single" and ammended my taxes a couple of months later. I received my refund fast paid for college and only then did I ammend. When I ammended my taxes I didn't claim the EIC (earned income credit) in order to avoid complications and keep the refund as it was. I received a letter accepting my ammended return but letting me know that the "change" was not going to show on my transcripts. I saved the letter in case I needed it for the interview in order to explain why I filed single while being married. Thankfully, this was not an issue during the interview at all.

-For tax year 2010 I wanted to do things right plus I didn't need my refund ASAP. I snailed mailed my federal return as "married filing separate" along with form W-7 and notarized copies of my husband's IDs. I got my refund no problem but received an official letter addressed to him saying that they could not provide my hubby with an ITIN number because they had not received HIS return. I didn't give a ####### because I only wanted the number in order to fill out my taxes correctly, and he was going to receive his social security card anyways upon entry to US.

-For this tax year husband is here so I'm filing "married filing Jointly"

p.s Keep in mind that IRS is no longer accepting 'NRA' or anything other than the ITIN/SSN for foreign spouse on the forms.

Thank you. This is great. Thank you for sharing!

[Matt1968 13]

Here are 2 escenarios from my personal experience:

-For tax year 2009 I wanted to claim the "Married Filing Separate" option on my taxes. Using online software to E-FILE didn't permit me to file without my husband's SSN/ITIN. I needed my refund money ASAP in order to pay for my college courses and waiting for an ITIN number and filing snail mail were not good options for me. I decided to file as "single" and ammended my taxes a couple of months later. I received my refund fast paid for college and only then did I ammend. When I ammended my taxes I didn't claim the EIC (earned income credit) in order to avoid complications and keep the refund as it was. I received a letter accepting my ammended return but letting me know that the "change" was not going to show on my transcripts. I saved the letter in case I needed it for the interview in order to explain why I filed single while being married. Thankfully, this was not an issue during the interview at all.

-For tax year 2010 I wanted to do things right plus I didn't need my refund ASAP. I snailed mailed my federal return as "married filing separate" along with form W-7 and notarized copies of my husband's IDs. I got my refund no problem but received an official letter addressed to him saying that they could not provide my hubby with an ITIN number because they had not received HIS return. I didn't give a ####### because I only wanted the number in order to fill out my taxes correctly, and he was going to receive his social security card anyways upon entry to US.

-For this tax year husband is here so I'm filing "married filing Jointly"

p.s Keep in mind that IRS is no longer accepting 'NRA' or anything other than the ITIN/SSN for foreign spouse on the forms.

Hello,

This is great information, thanks for posting. I think a couple of us are going through this now. Here is what I want to do. I just purchased turbotax and I can honestly say it made it a breeze to do my taxes. It was so easy I thought I had to have done something wrong. I did 3 different scenarios. First, I did my taxes as married filing Jointly and it showed a nice refund. 2nd, I did the taxes married filing seperately and the refund was half of what Married filing jointly was. Then I did the taxes as if I was single and it was roughly the same refund as Married filing seperately. I also saw that with Married filing Jointly I was taxed at a much lower rate than married filing seperately. Because the refund amount was higher filing jointly, I'm going down that route. What I'm going to do is this:

1. Print out my federal tax return and bring it with me tomorrow when I go to Santiago and have my wife sign the form with me.

2. I'm going to bring down a w-7 form and have her fill it out with my assistance.

3. I'm going to get a copy of her passport and have the copy notarized.

4. I'm also going to bring down the declaration page and both she and I are going to sign it.

5. When I come back I'm going to fill out a form 2555 and send it with everything else to austin, TX.

I thought about filing married filing seperately because you don't need anything from your spouse and you get the refund quicker, but I figured why prolonge it and just get it over with now.

Filing single with the intention of filing an amendment later cross my mind, but i want no problems with USCIS later on.

This is just what I plan on doing.

What I highlighted in Bold, isn't the w-7 and notarized I.D's only for if you filing "married filing Jointly"?

Matt

Edited January 30, 2012 by Matt1968

[1love 2]

Matt, where did you print the declaration from. We just wrote ours seperately based on the directions from irs website.

[Clark--Kent 4]

p.s Keep in mind that IRS is no longer accepting 'NRA' or anything other than the ITIN/SSN for foreign spouse on the forms.

Writing NRA is acceptable if you are married filing seperately and you don't claim your spouse as an exemption. It's spelled out clearly in the 1040 instructions for 2011.

[tuvaty 3]

Hello,

This is great information, thanks for posting. I think a couple of us are going through this now. Here is what I want to do. I just purchased turbotax and I can honestly say it made it a breeze to do my taxes. It was so easy I thought I had to have done something wrong. I did 3 different scenarios. First, I did my taxes as married filing Jointly and it showed a nice refund. 2nd, I did the taxes married filing seperately and the refund was half of what Married filing jointly was. Then I did the taxes as if I was single and it was roughly the same refund as Married filing seperately. I also saw that with Married filing Jointly I was taxed at a much lower rate than married filing seperately. Because the refund amount was higher filing jointly, I'm going down that route. What I'm going to do is this:

1. Print out my federal tax return and bring it with me tomorrow when I go to Santiago and have my wife sign the form with me.

2. I'm going to bring down a w-7 form and have her fill it out with my assistance.

3. I'm going to get a copy of her passport and have the copy notarized.

4. I'm also going to bring down the declaration page and both she and I are going to sign it.

5. When I come back I'm going to fill out a form 2555 and send it with everything else to austin, TX.

I thought about filing married filing seperately because you don't need anything from your spouse and you get the refund quicker, but I figured why prolonge it and just get it over with now.

Filing single with the intention of filing an amendment later cross my mind, but i want no problems with USCIS later on.

This is just what I plan on doing.

What I highlighted in Bold, isn't the w-7 and notarized I.D's only for if you filing "married filing Jointly"?

Matt

Thanks for the 3 scenarios Matt. I am going to do the same scenarios with my Turbo Tax.

Writing NRA is acceptable if you are married filing seperately and you don't claim your spouse as an exemption. It's spelled out clearly in the 1040 instructions for 2011.

Yup, I concur. But you can only write NRA if you're filing married but separately.

[Matt1968 13]

Matt, where did you print the declaration from. We just wrote ours seperately based on the directions from irs website.

Hello 1love,

I'm sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean I printed a form called "declaration form". I did what you did and I'm having my wife sign it with me. I just called it that for ease

Matt

[Matt1968 13]

Thanks for the 3 scenarios Matt. I am going to do the same scenarios with my Turbo Tax.

Yup, I concur. But you can only write NRA if you're filing married but separately.

sup Tuvaty,

No problem. I just wanted to spell out exactly what I did for future sakes. I'm not computer lliterate so detailing things out is easier for me.

Matt

Edited January 31, 2012 by Matt1968

[1love 2]

Thanks Matt for clarifying. I am presently with my husband visiting so we are getting all necessary stuff.

I will go ahead now and print the typed out declaration.

Best wishes

[Terca 6]

What I highlighted in Bold, isn't the w-7 and notarized I.D's only for if you filing "married filing Jointly"?

Matt

That's a good question, I did the same thing you are doing this year using the turbotax software. I ran different scenarios and was actually getting more money back if I filed as "married filing jointly" but since my husband wasn't here and wasn't my dependent I felt it was wrong to claim the extra cash from the EIC. BUT Turbotax needed my husbands ITN/SSN even if filing as "married filing separate" (at least back then it did). So I printed out the forms and was about to send them snail-mail with "NRA" in place of my husband's ITIN/SSN when I came across this bit of info:

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=222209,00.html

IRS processes returns showing SSNs or ITINs in the blanks where tax forms request SSNs. IRS no longer accepts, and will not process, forms showing "SSA205c," "applied for," "NRA," blanks, etc.

I wanted no problems so I left the space blank and sent the W-7 and necessary docs anyways.

Writing NRA is acceptable if you are married filing seperately and you don't claim your spouse as an exemption. It's spelled out clearly in the 1040 instructions for 2011.

Oh that's great! I'm basing my answers on the ITIN info from the IRS website so it's a bit misleading that they state one thing on the form and another on the website pertaining the ITIN number. Thanks for bringing this up!

[JlovesL 0]

so am in the process of a IR-1/CR-1 Visa waiting on uscis. and i need to file my taxes

can i file married filing separately and put NRA in place of the ssn?

i just want the easy way out of this, i do not mind if i get less money back

i just do not want any issues later on with the irs.

btw, i thought one COULD NOT file as single if they are married