Citizenship and Tax Filing Question

[ryna 132]

My wife just had her ROC approved but we just realized (thought about the fact) that she can file her N-400 in August, so I have started reading up on it.

To make a long story short, she has never worked since her arrival. I have been the sole earner. We filed our 2011 taxes jointly. I was then out of work for all of 2012. Fortunately, our savings were enough to allow us to get by through all of 2012; however, since we had a 2012 income of a whopping total of $54 (interest, etc.) which is, of course, well under the IRS filing requirement limit of ~$19K for a married couple, we did not bother to file a 2012 return. (We completed and intended to file but TurboTax wouldn't transmit a return with an income that low and we never went back to fill it out a paper 1040 since there was no legal obligation to do so.)

Will this be a problem for her Citizenship process? Can it be explained on the N-400 app that we were well below the IRS limit and not required to file in 2012 or should we just go ahead and file a 2012 return late? Since I'm working again, we'll be filing our 2013 taxes (married) soon and will have 2 of the last 3 years.

Edited January 24, 2014 by ryna

[IcyStar 10]

i think they have a question in n-400 form if you owe any taxes,and basically i think you should answer yes,and in this case you should provide an explnation letter and possible communication with IRS,if you have your emails from them saved.it should be official paperwork on it.

[Shub 78]

i think they have a question in n-400 form if you owe any taxes,and basically i think you should answer yes,and in this case you should provide an explnation letter and possible communication with IRS,if you have your emails from them saved.it should be official paperwork on it.

That's the thing though, what they're saying is they didn't owe any taxes and there is no reason for them to have communicated with the IRS on that topic. You're not required to file a tax return if your income is under a certain level. The two questions in form N-400 you're referring to are: 1) "Have you ever failed to file a required federal, state or local tax return?" -- and 2) "Do you owe any federal, state or local taxes that are overdue?"

If they weren't required to file, then they didn't fail to file, and consequently, they don't owe any overdue tax.

See http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Do-You-Need-to-File-a-Federal-Income-Tax-Return%3F for a more complete guide to IRS filing requirements. You can click yes or no at the bottom to proceed through the wizard.

I don't know if they should have filed despite their non-existent income, perhaps due to other circumstances (which the above link would help them figure out), but presuming they didn't need to file, then in my opinion they should just explain that they had no income and were not required to file (if they have proof, all the better).

Alternatively, you can always file a tax return for past years just for the sake of filing, if you're worried that USCIS will demand it even in the absence of a requirement to file. If you weren't required to file, you'll just be wasting the time of one arm of the government just to satisfy another arm.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Shub