Taxxxxxxxxxes!

[Mand 1]

Seriously guys, listen to Reinhard and do some research on the tax laws regarding the U.S. and your home country. We did and managed to do the taxes ourselves (with some help from Turbo Tax) and are still alive to tell the tale

The IRS make it complicated, but if you sit down and read the info, you'll get there. A lot of it may be irrelevant to your situation, so have a highlighter handy and mark off the info that IS relevant to you. It takes time, but it's worth knowing all that info I feel.

Good Luck

[de_sjiem 0]

Well that sucks. guess its gonna be paper filing for us next year too Oh well.. better than waiting goodness knows how long till i get a SSN...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Well that sucks. guess its gonna be paper filing for us next year too Oh well.. better than waiting goodness knows how long till i get a SSN...

If you paper-file early, the additional wait as opposed to electronic filing shouldn't be but a couple of weeks. Our paper filing went through very quick last year.

[fedoragirl 0]

indreams,

I am in the exact same situation as you. My husband just arrived in the U.S. in Feb. 2006 and I need to file taxes with him. He earned income in Germany and has already paid taxes in his country for the calendar year of 2005.

Would you pass along the IRS hotline telephone number so I can contact them?

My spouse is also waiting for his SSN. I will file for an extension if we don't get his SSN till March 15th.

Also, we got married in 9/2004 and I filed my taxes for 2004 as a single person. Do I need to go back and redo my 2004 taxes, add spouse's SSN (when he gets it) and file married jointly? Someone on VJ advised me to do that and I don't know where to begin.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

indreams,

I am in the exact same situation as you. My husband just arrived in the U.S. in Feb. 2006 and I need to file taxes with him. He earned income in Germany and has already paid taxes in his country for the calendar year of 2005.

Would you pass along the IRS hotline telephone number so I can contact them?

My spouse is also waiting for his SSN. I will file for an extension if we don't get his SSN till March 15th.

Also, we got married in 9/2004 and I filed my taxes for 2004 as a single person. Do I need to go back and redo my 2004 taxes, add spouse's SSN (when he gets it) and file married jointly? Someone on VJ advised me to do that and I don't know where to begin.

The IRS can be reached at 1-800-829-1040. You can also review IRS Publications online. Pay particular attention to publications 501 and 519.

Once your husband has his SSN, file the 1040 including his earned income from overseas. Then use form 2555 or 2555-EZ to calculate the amount of overseas earned income that will not be taxed in the US (usually up to $80K). The final amount of form 2555(EZ) will be reflected as a negative number on line 21 of the 1040. Give it a shot, it's really ain't that hard to do.

As for 2004, you can file an amended tax return up until three years after the original filing was done. Use form 1040X for that.

Cheers!

[fedoragirl 0]

Thanks for your very helpful response, Reinhard.

Edited March 3, 2006 by sidas