reporting marriage?

[fazmo 24]

It's not really clear what you're disputing about what I said. I was disputing your claim that she is not allowed to file jointly because her husband is a nonresident alien. Your link says the exact same thing as what I claimed above (which is contrary to your initial post): if a citizen is married to a nonresident alien, they can file jointly if they choose to let the nonresident alien be taxed as a resident alien. This doesn't mean that the nonresident suddenly is a resident, they're just taxed like one.

From your own link: "Generally, you cannot file as married filing jointly if either spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the tax year. However, nonresident aliens married to U.S. citizens or residents can choose to be treated as U.S. residents and file joint returns. For more information on these choices, refer to Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident."

I was disputing your last post that I have quoted in my post. You said I was not telling the truth when I said one cannot file a joint return if one spouse is a non-resident alien. The link asserts that. The process to have someone be treated as resident is different and its consequence is after the fact, not before.

You cannot file a joint return if your spouse is non-resident alien. Can you see that from the link?

Edited February 6, 2012 by fazmo

[alizon 77]

I was disputing your last post that I have quoted in my post. You said I was not telling the truth when I said one cannot file a joint return if one spouse is a non-resident alien. The link asserts that. The process to have someone be treated as resident is different and its consequence is after the fact, not before.

You cannot file a joint return if your spouse is non-resident alien. Can you see that from the link?

Well, it's not really "after the fact" since you submit your W-7 request for an ITIN at the same time and along with the regular tax forms you are filing. Seems like you're looking at a purely semantic difference here. My whole point is just this: even if your spouse is not a US citizen, does not hold a green card, and lives/works abroad (which is the position of the OP), you can still file married jointly if you also (at the same time!) apply for an ITIN and say they would like to be taxed as if they were a resident even though they are not actually a resident. You're also allowed to later revoke the decision to be taxed as a resident. Pretty simple and blatant from the IRS websites that we have both cited.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. No need to get worked up about it.

Edited February 6, 2012 by alizon