US taxes while in I130/IR1/CR1 proceedings

[vick&vandy 0]

I finished my taxes today, through Turbotax and filed head of household. Hubby is in Canada and I am in US with dependents. One of the easier paperwork processes for me while we wait for the I130 to be approved!

Dear Margorita,

Have you filed married and choose head of household with dependents,or single with head of household. Cause,if i putmarried and head of household,I put NRA for SSN. Please help.

[vick&vandy 0]

We just did that with head of household and it was painless and allowed us to e-file (a good thing when you live abroad).

Hi Nola123,

Thanks for info. Did you put NRA in the box of SSN or,you used single with head of household option. please help.

[NikLR 13,228]

You can't use single. You have to put married.

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

Hi Nola123,

Thanks for info. Did you put NRA in the box of SSN or,you used single with head of household option. please help.

Not that I am any expert and I am a little unsure of it myself, but turbo tax didn't check either married or single, but simply head of household and left the info about the spouse blank because we weren't filing jointly. I was able to efile so there was no writing in and I did supply the program with my husband's name, etc. There were several questions about his non-resident alien status.

I don't know if filing head of household was the right thing to do, but it is what it suggested.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Not that I am any expert and I am a little unsure of it myself, but turbo tax didn't check either married or single, but simply head of household and left the info about the spouse blank because we weren't filing jointly. I was able to efile so there was no writing in and I did supply the program with my husband's name, etc. There were several questions about his non-resident alien status.

I don't know if filing head of household was the right thing to do, but it is what it suggested.

Head of Household is usually for unmarried people with dependents...like single moms for example and gives you better tax rates than Single or Married Filing Separately. You have to be unmarried or "considered unmarried" on the last day of the tax year. This is the exception part for people who are actually married but the IRS will allow the Head of Household filing status:

Your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the tax year. Your spouse is considered to live in your home even if he or she is temporarily absent due to special circumstances

.

So you have a kid and your husband has never lived in your home (guessing) and you pay more than half the cost of keeping up home so you qualify.

Head of Household

You may be able to file as head of household if you meet all the following requirements.

You are unmarried or considered unmarried on the last day of the year. See Marital Status, earlier, and Considered Unmarried, later.

You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year.

A qualifying person lived with you in the home for more than half the year (except for temporary absences, such as school). However, if the qualifying person is your dependent parent, he or she does not have to live with you. See Special rule for parent , later, under Qualifying Person.

[Margotrita 0]

Dear Margorita,

Have you filed married and choose head of household with dependents,or single with head of household. Cause,if i putmarried and head of household,I put NRA for SSN. Please help.

Yes, I put married. If you are married by December 31, 2012 you have to choose married. Married is married.

You can put NRA instead of SS#

[Margotrita 0]

Yes, I put married. If you are married by December 31, 2012 you have to choose married. Married is married.

You can put NRA instead of SS#

Come to think of it, I didn't have the option to say married HOH. As a married person, turbo tax offered 3 categories that I could choose from... Married jointly, married separately or head of household.

I wasn't asked about SS# for my husband because I did not claim him as a dependent. My 3 children reside with me are me dependents.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Margotrita

[NikLR 13,228]

Nonresident alien spouse.[/url]

You are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year and you do not choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse is not a qualifying person for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as a head of household.

Just read that on the irs.gov website.

[zmpart 5]

Greetings

Just researching into how i do my taxes this year and glad i ran across this....first i married in july 2011, for 2011 i filed single (now i think mistakenly) as my wife was living in the UK. She got her green card in September 2012 and i thought i should file married this year (now i think probably last year also) but my concern was that as she wasnt here for most of the year and as we signed the I864 saying she wouldnt receive any government funds and filing married would give me a bigger refund, what am i supposed to do?

Obviously i am married and feel in the interest of honest ( the best policy in regards to the IRS for sure) i should file as such, but is this right?

Thanks for your time

Zac

[N-o-l-a 7,168]

Greetings

Just researching into how i do my taxes this year and glad i ran across this....first i married in july 2011, for 2011 i filed single (now i think mistakenly) as my wife was living in the UK. She got her green card in September 2012 and i thought i should file married this year (now i think probably last year also) but my concern was that as she wasnt here for most of the year and as we signed the I864 saying she wouldnt receive any government funds and filing married would give me a bigger refund, what am i supposed to do?

Obviously i am married and feel in the interest of honest ( the best policy in regards to the IRS for sure) i should file as such, but is this right?

Thanks for your time

Zac

File married for 2012 and I believe you can amend your 2011 taxes to married.

[GaganGoel 7]

So guys, to summarize, it seems like these are the options that we have:

1) File as Married filing jointly. Send W-7 along with two of the required documents. One suffices if it is passport. Originals or certified copies only.

2) Take an extension for filing and file when your spouse is in the US and has an SSN.

3) File as Head of household. No need to send W-7. Later on you can amend by refiling the taxes to take advantage of higher tax savings with "Married filing jointly".

4) File as Married filing separately. No need to send W-7. Later on you can amend by refiling the taxes to take advantage of higher tax savings with "Married filing jointly".

Can we have a poll on what different people are doing?

Here is the poll:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15m2krOOYEMzUGUa0nGtRC1_sEyGnGlFOfHRazwUTrZA/viewform?

Note: This poll is for people who's spouse has never been to the US and is not eligible for an SSN, and they were married on Dec 31, 2012.

[Panda Sky 5]

Wonderful post!

I just spoke to a CPA yesterday and he said that married filing jointly in my position would be impossible.

My husband has been to the US before and has worked so he already has a SSN. He last worked in the US in 2009.

Currently he is working as a teacher in India but his employer does not give him paystubs and receives nothing equivalent to a W-2. The CPA told me it would be impossible to file jointly without these documents.

So is our only option to file married separately then?

Your CPA is being lazy. Obviously, foreign companies don't file W-2 (or anything) with IRS (US taxing agency). But plenty of US citizens work abroad and file their US taxes without W-2 or equivalent. Married or not.

You can definitely file mairred jointly and report your husband income without a W-2 or equivalent. There's just more work involved. Filing W-7 and required documents - relating to the person, not the income with the filing of your taxes. Filing foreign income exclusion - which is another form. Your CPA is just being lazy. Find another CPA.

Good luck.

[GaganGoel 7]

Guys, posting this again. Can you please put your entry in this poll on what you are doing for filing taxes?

Here is the link to the poll:

https://docs.google....UTrZA/viewform?

Note: This poll is for people who's spouse has never been to the US and is not eligible for an SSN, and they were married on Dec 31, 2012.

[BBCC 16]

My wife and I went through this last year while she was in the I-130 process to her GC.

We had two choices last year as she was not physically present in US for all of 2011.

Note she had not entered the US yet and had no US income.

Choices for us were:

1. I complete my 1040 as Married Filing Separately. In this case, she has no SSN or Tax ID number. We do not list her income on my tax return as she had no US sourced income, never present in the US and was a non-US resident. I think we list her name on the return but not a SSN or tax ID number.

OR

2. File for a IRS Tax ID number for her as a non-resident, then complete 1040 as Married Filed Jointly, include her income, exclude all of her foreign income tax paid under Foreign Earned Income exclusion (Form 2555) and use her deduction and exemption as my spouse.

Filing SINGLE is never an option once you're married. I got so much bad advice from tax accountants that I finally just cracked the books, looked through all the instructions and spent a few hours on the phone with 800-829-1040 to verify my assumptions. It all worked out for the best.

Edited March 21, 2013 by BBCC

[nolanbb 1]

I am using an expensive CPA who specializes in international taxes. I'm not sure if he knows any more than I do though, since I've done a lot of research and I filled out my tax forms and the W-7 for my wife's tax ID with the proper backup information. I've got an unusual problem though. My wife in China worked for a small family company until a couple months after we got married last June. They let her go once they found out about our marriage because they knew she was planning on quitting to come to the US once her visa was approved. She became upset and there was an argument when they let her go, so she is no longer on good terms with the past employer. My question is how do I handle her employment on my joint tax return? She doesn't have any record of how much they paid her, as it varied and they don't provide any W-2 forms or anything. Also, how does the IRS verify her employment or how much money she makes? Would they call her past employer? I've been planning on filing the joint tax return with only my income and saying she had no employment, but that contradicts what we put on the I-130 petition. We put her employment dates with the company on the I-130. China is still backwards with things like this. Does anyone have any advice? I don't want the interviewer to question why my 2012 tax return doesn't show her employer but the visa forms show the employer.