SSN, marriage and taxes.

[christeen 966]

My fiance moves here Dec. 24, so the way I see it, she was a permanent resident in the Philippines until then, then a permanent residence in the U.S. post-Dec. 24. She qualifies for the 2555 because she was therefore a resident in the Philippines for more than the required 330 days out of 365.

Correct... She meets the standard for expemption... You can exempt up to 97k of what she earned

[gwenstar 66]

Actually you file married jointly when using the 2555 (otherwise you would not include her income, and therefore cannot use it), so you still get the standard deduction for her AND can exclude her income when figuring the tax.

You are allowed to exclude up to $97,000 of foreign income from your total income when figuring tax, and form 2555 is a worksheet you attach to your return when making this calculation.

Thanks!! That is good info to have. I am really trying to find the best way for my situation so we start off on the right foot! From what you say this could be ideal - gonna do some more research, but I am stoked to have another route to explore!

[trixiechick75 2]

Correct... She meets the standard for expemption... You can exempt up to 97k of what she earned

So, if we are using this form to "exempt" our spouse's income they made in their country...is there anything we need to collect from his home country showing the income we are exempting? My husband lived in the Dominican Republic and made WAY WAY WAY under the $97,000 exemption. He moved here just a week ago and most likely will not be working until the beginning of 2014. I'm assuming the benefit to this would be to show an extra "dependent" on my taxes? Not sure how that would work or if there would be any benefit since he just got here in late November.

[christeen 966]

We just filled out the IRS 2555, input this employer and the amount and filled in the rest of the worksheet... We did not submit anything as far as documentation from his overseas employer...

[trixiechick75 2]

We just filled out the IRS 2555, input this employer and the amount and filled in the rest of the worksheet... We did not submit anything as far as documentation from his overseas employer...

Great, thank you!

[Travelpro 3]

My fiance moves here Dec. 24, so the way I see it, she was a permanent resident in the Philippines until then, then a permanent residence in the U.S. post-Dec. 24. She qualifies for the 2555 because she was therefore a resident in the Philippines for more than the required 330 days out of 365.

Thank you for that. This is very good info. My fiance arrived Nov 26th so I guess we missed the 330 days by 1 day?

...For this purpose, your period of physical presence is the 330 full days during which you were present in a foreign country,...

[Dave&Roza 748]

So, if we are using this form to "exempt" our spouse's income they made in their country...is there anything we need to collect from his home country showing the income we are exempting? My husband lived in the Dominican Republic and made WAY WAY WAY under the $97,000 exemption. He moved here just a week ago and most likely will not be working until the beginning of 2014. I'm assuming the benefit to this would be to show an extra "dependent" on my taxes? Not sure how that would work or if there would be any benefit since he just got here in late November.

My wife made the equivalent of about $6000 when she arrived in 2010. She arrived on December 20th and we married on December 30th. We both signed a statement that she wanted to be considered a LPR for TAX purposes for the entire year. I had her HR department send her via e-mail a letter stating her income in KZT. I used the OBM website to get the official US government exchange rate and converted her income to US dollars and added that to my salary, but took her deductions off of my income. Tax savings to me that year was $8,000. So you can either take the exemption OR include the spouse's income with yours and claim them as a LPR for the entire year for TAX purposes. I did both methods to see which allowed me to pay the least amount in taxes. Typically if the foreign spouse earned a large sum of money then taking the exemption is the best route and if the foreign spouse made very little money then including their income along with their deductions is the best.

Good luck,

Dave

[gwenstar 66]

After doing some more research with Form 2555 - I have another questions...

My spouse is still in Canada as he has not gotten the visa yet. Since he does not have an SSN/Green Card he is a non resident alien (correct?). I don't know if he would qualify for F2555.

For the regular 1040 income taxes I know that since he is married to a USC then he could be counted for tax purposes as a resident alien for 2013 since we were married in 2013. And if we choose to file jointly that we would add in W-7 with the return to get an ITIN for him.

This is the information I have found - if anyone has insight, I would totally appreciate it. Thanks!!

----------------------------------------------

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2555.pdf

PG 3

Form 2555 exclusion foreign income up to $97,600 – USD

Note. A nonresident alien who, with a

U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien spouse,

chooses to be taxed as a resident of the

United States can qualify under this test if

the time requirements are met. See Pub.

54 for details on how to make this choice

Section 4 of pub 54 – Foreign Earned Income Requirements – non resident alien counted as resident for tax purposes listed under requirements for form 2555

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Since you did not live in the US as a married couple in 2013, and the foreign spouse does not have a SSN or ITIN, I would just file married filing separately, for you. Foreign spouse files no US taxes.

[Darnell 8,478]

My fiance moves here Dec. 24, so the way I see it, she was a permanent resident in the Philippines until then, then a permanent residence in the U.S. post-Dec. 24. She qualifies for the 2555 because she was therefore a resident in the Philippines for more than the required 330 days out of 365.

for tax purposes, for tax year 2013, you two would have had to get married prior to 1/1/2014.

Handle that? Yer Golden !

Not handle that? Not countable for tax year 2013, filed in 2014.

[gwenstar 66]

Since you did not live in the US as a married couple in 2013, and the foreign spouse does not have a SSN or ITIN, I would just file married filing separately, for you. Foreign spouse files no US taxes.

Thanks for your reply!